Million Victories: Inventing the serverless future of gaming with Google Cloud
About Million Victories
Founded in 2017 and specializing in massively multiplayer games, the mobile game development studio Million Victories offers an innovative and fun commercial experience, far from traditional "pay to win." Based in Lyon, the company has 30 employees and boasts over 2 million players around the world.
Tell us your challenge. We're here to help.
Contact usTo bring to life the massively multiplayer universe of its popular mobile game Million Lords, the Million Victories studio opted for Google Cloud serverless managed services to host an unlimited number of players without worrying about IT infrastructure, all with a very small IT team.
Google Cloud results
- Faster rollouts and innovation
- Significantly less time spent on operational maintenance
- Optimal player experience around the world
- Implementation of a data strategy simplified by managed services
Time savings of 10–15% on rollouts with serverless services
A French success story that has already attracted over 2 million players around the world, Million Victories is a gametech company based in Lyon, where it has its own development studios. Its novel MMORTS (massively multiplayer online real-time strategy game) Million Lords is set apart from traditional mobile games by its less time-consuming and complex gameplay. Oriented around the player while also avoiding clumsy and intrusive monetization practices that can detract from the gaming experience, Million Lords offers rapid immersion and a rewarding experience, as well as a level of strategic commitment and difficulty where mobile games often fall short.
Simplicity and efficiency gains with Google Cloud managed services
Founded five years ago, the company is supported by an international advisory committee of gaming industry veterans, and is now competing with the biggest names in the sector. Without a doubt, its success is based on the originality and creativity of its game. But this French gametech company also owes its worldwide popularity to an IT strategy that has been clearly defined since its creation, and which enables it to innovate and satisfy its millions of players all over the planet with a very small IT team.
From the outset, Million Victories has opted for cloud-based hosting in order to be able to scale easily and offer a fluid and optimal experience to all its players. Although critical, such scaling is not the only criterion guiding its IT strategy. As Jonathan Camara, head of Infrastructure at Million Victories, explains: "Despite our success internationally, Million Victories is still a human-sized company with around 30 employees. And, for both economic and organizational reasons, we want to retain the advantages of our small structure, which requires particularly rich and innovative cloud infrastructure that means we don't need administrative contingencies and simplifies rollouts. In other words, a cloud provider that means we don't have to deal with infrastructure problems and can better focus on our added value, namely the functionalities of our game."
Based on those principles and following the success of its game, Million Victories wasn't afraid to change cloud provider and, just one year after its creation, opted for Google Cloud. "The prototypes that were made in a different cloud showed that we needed to reconsider things and use containers so that we could scale more easily. As Google Cloud is the birthplace of Kubernetes, we chose the most advanced implementation in terms of both functionality and managed services," says Jonathan Camara.
"Despite our success internationally, Million Victories is still a human-sized company, with around 30 employees. And, for both economic and organizational reasons, we want to retain the advantages of our small structure, which requires particularly rich and innovative cloud infrastructure that means we don't need administrative contingencies and simplifies rollouts."
—Jonathan Camara, Head of Infrastructure at Million VictoriesGoing serverless to think even less about infrastructure
Around six months ago, Million Victories took its approach even further by gradually replacing GKE with Google Cloud serverless services: Cloud Run, Cloud Function, Pub/Sub, etc. "We have a clear goal of no longer having staff dedicated to infrastructure maintenance and administration. That's why we are working exclusively with providers that allow us to do away with infrastructure. With Google Cloud serverless services, we have practically gone past the DevOps stage: development, testing, and deployment are far more intuitive, and much simpler and faster. This new approach means we spend an average of 10–15% less time adding new functionality to our game," says Jonathan Camara.
With increased reactivity and the reassurance of infrastructure capable of partnering with Million Victories in its strategy to conquer new players around the world, the company can focus on its core business and its growth. To that end, the company has embarked upon a new stage of its evolution by harnessing Google Cloud's data platform to implement a complete data strategy.
"With Google Cloud serverless services, we have practically gone past the DevOps stage: development, testing, and deployment are far more intuitive, and much simpler and faster. This new approach means we spend an average of 10–15% less time adding new functionality to our game."
—Jonathan Camara, Head of Infrastructure at Million VictoriesHarnessing data
In practice, the company first envisages creating a data lake to centralize its data. Its approach is mainly centered around Dataproc and BigQuery. It wants to gradually implement dashboards to fuel its development strategy, optimize marketing campaigns, and enhance player experience. "We'll be able, for example, to more precisely prioritize development and adapt the game in line with players' behavior and preferences," explains Jonathan Camara. "Similarly, cross-referencing game data with advertiser data will enable us to optimize acquisition campaigns by targeting players more effectively and maximizing return on investment. And, more generally, thanks to a data platform replete with managed services that simplify the collection, aggregation, and use of data, Google Cloud once again allows us to focus on what we see as being truly important, while also opening up our field of possibility."
With millions of concurrent adventures being managed with complete flexibility and transparency by Google serverless managed services as part of a strategy underpinned by cloud technologies and built around user communities, Million Victories has not only bolstered its position at the forefront of the mobile gametech industry but has also redefined its creative and economic potential and become a new benchmark for French innovation and success on the world stage.
"Thanks to a data platform replete with managed services that simplify the collection, aggregation, and use of data, Google Cloud once again allows us to focus on what we see as being truly important, while also opening up our field of possibility."
—Jonathan Camara, Head of Infrastructure at Million VictoriesTell us your challenge. We're here to help.
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About Million Victories
Founded in 2017 and specializing in massively multiplayer games, the mobile game development studio Million Victories offers an innovative and fun commercial experience, far from traditional "pay to win." Based in Lyon, the company has 30 employees and boasts over 2 million players around the world.