Humankind could do a lot in 1.9 billion hours. We could travel back and forth to the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, 16 times. We could rebuild the pyramid complex at Giza 5 or 6 times, without machines.

But instead, in 2025, we spent 1.9 billion hours watching progress bars creeping forward to play games. That’s how long it took to download games delivered digitally last year – just on Steam.

With ROCKITPLAY FastStart, we are not eliminating game downloads, but the amount of time spent waiting to play would have been cut by about 95%, giving gamers back enough time to travel back and forth to Alpha Centauri 15 times.

FastStart prioritizes the game data needed first, so play can begin in minutes or seconds while the rest of the download continues in the background. Forget about hours spent waiting or scheduling downloads. Just click and play! And since giant patches are even more annoying than the initial first download, we thought of that too. ROCKITPLAY smart patching slashes patch sizes by 20% to 80%.

ROCKITPLAY is available as a managed service, tight integration and soon in partnership with Xsolla offered in the Xsolla Publishing Suite. We are attending Gamescom and would like to meet with you.

For years, everyone assumed storage would keep getting cheaper. Not anymore, SSD prices have increased sharply due to AI-driven demand. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and Xbox Game Studios Head Matt Booty summarize: “We are in a hardware component crisis.”

In addition, modern games continue to grow in install size, easily breaking past 100GB, while PC makers are slashing the amount of storage they ship on new PCs. The result is more storage headaches for gamers.
 
When installing a new game means deleting another one, discovery suffers. And if discovery suffers, revenues suffer.

That’s where ROCKITPLAY FastStart changes the equation.
FastStart effectively eliminates the download wait as gameplay starts almost instantly and gamers play while downloading. So offloading games to try new ones comes with no remorse. By honoring individual game saves, gameplay resumes in seconds or minutes from where they left off, while reinstalling is silently handled in the background.

As storage capacity becomes more expensive, reducing friction to gameplay isn’t just a player convenience…it’s becoming a stronger business advantage.

ROCKITPLAY FastStart 
– Helps gamers overcome storage headaches
– Helps stores increase sales, since reinstalling is not punished by long download wait times
– Starts gameplay with as little as 1% downloaded, so demos, trials, F2P are instant fun

Learn more and take FastStart for a personal test drive on www.rockitplay.com

What if your QA team could gain 10-15% more productive testing time, without hiring more testers or extending the schedule? You cannot create more hours in the day. But you can stop wasting them on download waits and installations. That is the idea behind ROCKIT QA.

We originally developed FastStart so gamers could begin playing with only a fraction of the game downloaded. Then we realized: QA teams face the same waiting problem, only it happens again and again and again, with every new build.

ROCKIT QA applies FastStart and smart block patching to build distribution, helping teams start testing within seconds or minutes while the build continues downloading in the background. The potential impact:
→  Higher QA productivity: 10-15%
→  Up to 90% less setup time
→  More hands-on testing and faster fix validation
→  Shorter feedback cycles and faster content releases
→  Works with any game, no game code changes required

Our internal benchmarks at 200 Mbps illustrate the difference: Fortnite was switched from a 52-minute full download to an 8-minute FastStart and a 1-minute patch workflow. Path of Exile improved from 39 minutes to 2 minutes. Across 1,000 test installs, that represents up to 100 working days converted from waiting into testing.

ROCKIT QA is a secure, global build distribution solution that uses ultra fast CDNs serving instant play builds to distributed QA teams. Curious what 10–15% more QA productivity could mean for your team? Meet with DACS LABS GmbH at Gamescom 2026

We’re excited to share that DACSLABS has been awarded Pre-Integration Partner status with Xsolla, following the integration of ROCKITPLAY FastStart into the Xsolla Publishing Suite. Together, Xsolla + FastStart bring streaming-like, click to play access to PC games. With FastStart, gameplay starts in seconds or minutes not hours and patch times are dramatically reduced. Publishers can offer low-friction trials, demos, and free weekends. FastStart helps free-to-play publishers increase conversion and revenues through eliminating download dropouts. We’re proud to partner with Xsolla to bring faster, friction-free gameplay experiences to players worldwide.

Next week (March 9-13), our team will be in San Francisco at the Moscone Center for the world’s premier game development event — GDC Festival of Gaming 2026!

We’re thrilled to join thousands of developers, publishers, QA pros, and industry leaders to connect, share ideas, and showcase innovations that are transforming game production.

Hot off the press: we just launched ROCKIT QA — our smart build distribution solution designed to get testers into play-ready builds in minutes, not hours. Powered by FastStart Technology and Smart Patcher, it slashes setup time by up to 90%, eliminates massive idle wait periods (think 100+ hours saved weekly for a 25-person QA team), and boosts productivity without extra headcount or code changes.

Proven across 1,000+ playtests on major Free-to-Play titles, ROCKIT QA is built for QA studios, internal teams, and large-scale pipelines who want faster feedback loops and quicker time to market.

If you’re attending GDC, let’s meet up! Drop us a line to schedule a chat, demo ROCKIT QA, or just talk games and QA workflows. We’re excited to see what’s next in the industry — and how we can help accelerate your pipeline.

Read the full introduction to ROCKIT QA here: Introducing ROCKIT QA: Getting Testers Into Play-Ready Builds in Minutes, Not Hours

See you in San Francisco! 🚀

Before a game ever ships, countless builds are pushed to QA teams. Every one of those builds represents a hidden cost: Waiting. Waiting to download. Waiting to patch. Waiting before meaningful testing can even begin.

At GDC, we’re launching ROCKIT QA, a smart build distribution solution designed specifically for QA studios, internal QA teams, and large-scale game development pipelines. The goal is simple: Get testers into play-ready builds in minutes, not hours.

Artikelinhalte

ROCKIT QA employs FastStart Technology to reduce wait time for every game build and patch, improving productivity and accelerating time to market.

ROCKIT QA boosts QA productivity through two core innovations, FastStart and Smart Patcher, cutting setup time by up to 90%. The result is faster test cycles, more hands-on testing time, and less wasted capacity. FastStart builds eliminate over 90% of the “dead time” between build availability and actual gameplay. And it works with any PC game, with no game code changes required.

Daily downloads quietly drain QA efficiency. Consider this: If 25 testers wait an average of 45 minutes each day for overnight builds to download, that’s nearly 100 hours of lost testing time every week. By cutting down idle time, teams can increase effective QA productivity by 10% or more without adding headcount or crunch.

Proven Results: We recently evaluated ROCKIT QA on two major Free-to-Play titles to measure real-world time-to-play. Across 1,000 playtests, the aggregate gains were substantial, converting hundreds of hours from waiting to actual testing.

In 2024 nearly 19,000 games hit Steam, yet two-thirds of PC playtime went to just five—most of them years old. That gap isn’t only about quality or marketing; it’s about how platforms connect players to games. As a Wargaming platform lead wrote recently, great games deserve discovery; players deserve help finding the right games. We agree—and we think the biggest levers live with platforms.

Players don’t choose in a vacuum. They choose inside stores, launchers, and subscriptions—systems that decide what’s visible and how costly it is to try something new. Right now the cost of a “try” is high: giant installs, limited drive space, long patches, and the cognitive load of choosing among tens of thousands of titles. Even subscriptions, which should broaden horizons, often increase storage pressure as players queue up multiple 100-GB downloads they don’t have room for. Streaming promised relief but still runs into latency, bandwidth, and catalog constraints—good for some genres, awkward for many others.

The time budget hasn’t grown either. Games now compete with Netflix, TikTok, YouTube, and everything else. If sampling a game eats an evening, most players won’t sample. They’ll play the familiar five. Marketing can’t solve this: you can’t out-advertise hours-long installs or the dread of uninstalling a favorite to make space.

Platforms can change that by lowering the cost of a try.

Make trials, free weekends, and F2P truly instant—from store page to gameplay in seconds, not hours. Let re-entry be fast, so coming back after a patch feels like a tap, not a chore. Keep patches and first-run downloads small. Respect storage budgets so sampling a new game never requires deleting an old one.

We don’t claim to have the whole answer. But we do know that reducing friction is a practical, immediate move platforms can make. ROCKITPLAY FastStart helps here by turning local play into near-instant access: start with a small preload, stream the rest as you play, and cut patch overhead. It preserves the reliability of local installs while removing some of the biggest costs of curiosity. Wouldn’t discoverability be easier if sampling a game took seconds?

If you’re building a store, launcher, or subscription, we’d love to compare notes on lowering the cost of a try—so more great games can actually be discovered.

Rockitplay FastStart is Now Available with the Xsolla Publishing Suite

Xsolla + FastStart eliminates download dropouts, increases conversion and revenue, and helps build a direct-to-consumer relationship. Reach out to discuss how FastStart & Xsolla can enhance your player relationships, improve discoverability, and grow revenue.

Imagine, a gamer stumbles across your title, hyped from a killer trailer, and clicks “Play Now.” Their excitement is at its peak. Heart racing, ready to dive in. But instead of gameplay, they’re stuck staring at a download bar creeping along like a Monday morning commute. In that moment, you’re not just losing their attention, you’re losing them entirely. Today’s gamers don’t wait; they move on. In a world where instant gratification is the standard, why should gaming be the exception. And here is why this matters:

Because MONETIZATION MATTERS

Whether the barrier is slow internet, a crowded hard drive, or simple impatience, the result is always the same: lost revenue and missed opportunities. Large publishers routinely report losing 20–30% of new users before those users have played a single minute of the game. This leakage isn’t just frustrating, it’s costly. Eliminating download dropouts increases conversion and revenue.

Because TIME MATTERS

Gamers are constantly deciding how to spend their time. Every second not playing is frustrating and a chance to drop off. And with game sizes ballooning to 150GB or more today, the gap between interest and gameplay is widening. According to user reports and industry analyses, 25–35% of gamers worldwide will abandon a game entirely if the download takes too long or their local storage is insufficient. Fast, frictionless access to gameplay gets players engaged.

Because DISCOVERABILITY MATTERS

With thousands of titles launching each year, competition for visibility is fierce. Steam offers more than 100,000 games to choose from. Publishers invest heavily in marketing, store page optimization, influencer outreach, and community building. But what happens when a player finally clicks “Install” and is faced with a multi-hour download? Especially for free-to-play games, all that effort to attract attention and spark interest can evaporate instantly. Players who drop off during downloads aren’t just lost for a single session; they often never return. With zero wait gamers jump from interest to play, so every click turns into immediate engagement.

Because RELATIONSHIP MATTERS

Real player relationships start at the very first click. Platforms like Netflix and Spotify won because their experience felt personal, effortless, and respectful of users’ time. Similarly, games and platforms that prioritize seamless experiences from first contact build immediate trust and lasting loyalty.

REMOVING FRICTION TO PLAY: XSOLLA PUBLISHING SUITE AND FASTSTART ROCKITPLAY

FastStart, integrated into the Xsolla Publishing Suite, directly addresses the frustrations that erode player interest and relationships. FastStart lets gamers jump straight from interest to play – no waiting, less storage anxiety. Players engage precisely at the peak of their interest, and publishers build meaningful direct-to-player relationships. Advantages of deploying the Xsolla Publishing Suite powered by FastStart include:

Xsolla + FastStart eliminates download dropouts, increases conversions and revenue, and helps build a direct-to-consumer relationship. If you’re attending Gamescom this August, let’s connect to discuss how FastStart & Xsolla can enhance your player relationships, improve discoverability, and grow revenue. For immediate insights, reach out to me here on LinkedIn.

Learn more today at Xsolla Publishing Suite with FastStart.

Imagine, a gamer stumbles across your title, hyped from a killer trailer, and clicks “Play Now.” Their excitement is at its peak. Heart racing, ready to dive in. But instead of gameplay, they’re stuck staring at a download bar creeping along like a Monday morning commute. In that moment, you’re not just losing their attention, you’re losing them entirely. Today’s gamers don’t wait; they move on. In a world where instant gratification is the standard, why should gaming be the exception. And here is why this matters:

Because MONETIZATION MATTERS

Whether the barrier is slow internet, a crowded hard drive, or simple impatience, the result is always the same: lost revenue and missed opportunities. Large publishers routinely report losing 20–30% of new users before those users have played a single minute of the game. This leakage isn’t just frustrating, it’s costly. Eliminating download dropouts increases conversion and revenue.

Because TIME MATTERS

Gamers are constantly deciding how to spend their time. Every second not playing is frustrating and a chance to drop off. And with game sizes ballooning to 150GB or more today, the gap between interest and gameplay is widening. According to user reports and industry analyses, 25–35% of gamers worldwide will abandon a game entirely if the download takes too long or their local storage is insufficient. Fast, frictionless access to gameplay gets players engaged.

Because DISCOVERABILITY MATTERS

With thousands of titles launching each year, competition for visibility is fierce. Steam offers more than 100,000 games to choose from. Publishers invest heavily in marketing, store page optimization, influencer outreach, and community building. But what happens when a player finally clicks “Install” and is faced with a multi-hour download? Especially for free-to-play games, all that effort to attract attention and spark interest can evaporate instantly. Players who drop off during downloads aren’t just lost for a single session; they often never return. With zero wait gamers jump from interest to play, so every click turns into immediate engagement.

Because RELATIONSHIP MATTERS

Real player relationships start at the very first click. Platforms like Netflix and Spotify won because their experience felt personal, effortless, and respectful of users’ time. Similarly, games and platforms that prioritize seamless experiences from first contact build immediate trust and lasting loyalty.

REMOVING FRICTION TO PLAY: XSOLLA PUBLISHING SUITE AND FASTSTART ROCKITPLAY

FastStart, integrated into the Xsolla Publishing Suite, directly addresses the frustrations that erode player interest and relationships. FastStart lets gamers jump straight from interest to play – no waiting, less storage anxiety. Players engage precisely at the peak of their interest, and publishers build meaningful direct-to-player relationships. Advantages of deploying the Xsolla Publishing Suite powered by FastStart include:

Xsolla + FastStart eliminates download dropouts, increases conversions and revenue, and helps build a direct-to-consumer relationship. If you’re attending Gamescom this August, let’s connect to discuss how FastStart & Xsolla can enhance your player relationships, improve discoverability, and grow revenue. For immediate insights, reach out to me here on LinkedIn.

Learn more today at Xsolla Publishing Suite with FastStart.

Remember the thrill of flipping through vinyl records at a local shop, hunting for that one album that spoke to your soul? Or the magic of popping a new game disc into your console, heart racing as the title screen loaded? Nostalgia is powerful, but let’s be real: no gamer ever waxed poetic about watching a download progress bar crawl to 100%. In a world where Netflix and Spotify deliver instant gratification, gamers are stuck waiting, sometimes hours, to hit “Play.” And that wait is costing you more than just their patience.

As games industry strategist Reinout te Brake put it (Read his full analysis here):

“First impressions no longer begin at ‘Start Game’; they begin at ‘Downloading 0%.’ Just like how ‘stream instantly’ redefined music and video, ‘play instantly’ may soon become the norm—not the novelty.”

The numbers tell a painful story. Since 2012, top game sizes have ballooned from 10 GB to over 250 GB. Even with a blazing 242 Mbps connection (tachus.com), a 100 GB download takes nearly an hour. Add server bottlenecks, launch-day surges, or massive day-one patches, and you’ve got frustrated gamers abandoning carts and skipping titles. A DMA survey of 2,000 gamers revealed:

That’s lost revenue, lost players, and a missed chance to connect with your audience when their excitement is at its peak.

But here’s the good news: you can change the game. Literally. With ROCKITPLAY FastStart, integrated into the Xsolla Publishing Suite, you can deliver what gamers crave: instant play. No preloading, no scheduling downloads, no staring at progress bars. Players click and dive right in, while the rest of the game downloads seamlessly in the background. It’s the full power of local play with the ease of streaming, and it’s available to publishers of all sizes.

Why does this matter? Because instant access isn’t just convenient, it’s a game-changer for user acquisition and monetization:

Your audience doesn’t just want games, they want experiences that respect their time and fuel their passion. With FastStart, you’re not just selling a game; you’re delivering joy, the moment they hit “Play.” 

If you’re attending Gamescom this August, let’s connect and discuss how FastStart & Xsolla transform game delivery by dramatically improving players’ quality of life, conversion rates and monetization. For immediate insights, reach out to me here on LinkedIn.