Robot Cache, a videogame marketplace disrupting game distribution, has started releasing game titles using ROCKITPLAY FastStart. Now gamers can start playing in seconds or minutes after purchase and play while downloading.

The wait is over. Gamers don’t have to experience the frustration of waiting hours for game downloads any more. Instead, they can head over to Robot Cache where games powered by ROCKITPLAY FastStart eliminate up to 99% of waiting time. Games start almost instantly after clicking to download. And while gamers enjoy playing, the rest of the download is silently being taken care of in the background. To maximize performance, Akamai’s low-latency content delivery network is used, ensuring the technology achieves the fastest possible start time.

Robot Cache, the game store that lets players trade games and earn iron to get free stuff, is the first major game store to deploy ROCKITPLAY FastStart. This innovative approach to game delivery works on any game with no code changes or developer support. And the technology doesn’t just shave off a few minutes of start time – it can reduce wait time by up to 99%.

But don’t just take our word for it – try it out yourself with the game Darksiders Genesis at Robot Cache online.

Over the years of developing a breakthrough technology that can start any game in minutes or seconds compared to hours, we have seen faces turn from disbelief to excitement. We asked gamers whether they prefer waiting for many hours for a download to complete or to start playing almost instantly, and play while downloading. We also listened carefully to game stores, publishers and CDN providers. The result: a solution that runs fully automated in any existing environment, and flips an entire game store the size of Steam to FastStart in a day without requiring game code changes or developer support. ROCKITPLAY FastStart also delivers on society’s expectation that companies utilize technology to improve energy efficiency and fight climate change, expecting all of us to responsibly reduce energy consumption wherever possible.

No alt text provided for this image

Game stores and game publishers stand to benefit from lower content delivery or CDN costs, making this a win-win solution. The gaming industry is poised to take a big leap forward in sustainability. Let’s seize this opportunity to lead the change in carbon-efficient entertainment.

With ROCKITPLAY FastStart, gamers never need to endure long waiting times for downloads – they just click to play and start playing in minutes or even seconds. ROCKITPLAY reduces data transportation and costs by up to 80% by

Thanks to its patented technology ROCKITPLAY always delivers the smallest initial data package to start gameplay. Once in the game, any data not yet downloaded that is needed for game execution is fetched in milliseconds unnoticeable to users to ensure an uninterrupted, seamless gameplay. 

Around 40 billion tons of CO2 are emitted around the world annually. It is estimated that the carbon footprint of all internet usage accounts for about 3.7% or 1.5bn tons of CO2 each year. And these emissions are predicted to double by 2025. The Internet’s emissions of 3.7% are now even surpassing the whole aviation sector, which is estimated at 2.8% of global carbon emissions. If the internet was a country, it would come in 6th place, in between Japan (1.1bn tons) and Russia (1.9bn tons).

It’s no secret that gamers hate waiting. Previously we discussed what strategies gamers, publishers and game stores use to enjoy a game at Launch Day. Most strategies involve avoidable preload routines and huge Day One patches. With ROCKITPLAY FastStart preloading games prior to release becomes redundant, saving data bandwidth and costs. But perhaps most importantly, by slashing redundant bandwidth, FastStart also significantly reduces the environmental impact of game delivery. 

That may seem impossible, but we don’t think it is. ROCKITPLAY FastStart is game delivery technology that allows games to start almost instantly, reducing the need for large pre-loads on launch day. This also makes Day One patches redundant, saving significant bandwidth. Further, the technology reduces patch sizes by approximately 50% compared to standard, saving 50% of data traffic and costs. Additionally, ROCKITPLAY allows for the delivery of game builds in stages, or progressively. This effectively reduces about 75% to 90% of data delivery for try-before-you-buy or F2P games. Instead of delivering the full download at once, install just enough content for game tryouts. Continue playing? No need to restart or exit the game to proceed. 

In an independent study, goetzpartners found that in 2022 on average 70% of game content is being played, while 30% is not even touched. This ratio is expected to change to 65% played and 35% unused by 2025. This opens additional potential to save costs and energy, by reducing unnecessary data transportation. 

No alt text provided for this image

The gaming industry stands at a crossroads. We can either continue down the path of ever increasing power consumption and larger carbon footprints as games explode in size, or we can take a new path, innovating ways to make gaming more sustainable or at least eliminate redundant data delivery. ROCKITPLAY is the only universal aftermarket technology that can be used with any game and that doesn’t require any game code changes or developer support. It works at scale and can flip an entire library the size of Steam. 

There’s an epic battle being waged every day. It’s not a fight against alien invaders. It’s a face-off between gamers who want to enjoy playing directly after purchase and the brutal reality of long download wait times. As games become incredibly large, gamers have devised cunning strategies to fight boredom while waiting. Here are our Top 5 strategies to fight waiting for massive downloads:

1. Time Travel: By purchasing and pre-loading games in advance, gamers bypass the linearity of time, no Delorean required. This sometimes backfires – large day one patches can yank our time travelers into a time loop creating hours of waiting time. 

2. Appetizers:  While waiting for their main course to its complete download, gamers snack on smaller games, a testament to the power of distraction. Yes, some gamers choose to download and install a smaller game first to fight the boredom of waiting for the big rig to land. 

3. The Mad Scientist: Some gamers, unsatisfied with the speed of their connection, have resorted to multiple wired and wireless connections. Using multiple broadband connections, gamers try to warp speed their download. 

4. The Return of the Cartridge: You thought game cartridges were only for consoles? With the sheer size of modern games, gamers are now hoarding SD cards so that even if they run low on hard drive space, they don’t need to delete and re-download a complete game to play. 

5. Pass out: Yes it’s true. Some gamers report to simply fall asleep while waiting, hypnotized by the slow moving progress bar for download completion. And if they pass out long enough the game may already have downloaded more than 50%.

With ROCKITPLAY FastStart, gamers never need to endure long waiting times for downloads – they just click to play and start playing in minutes or even seconds. FastStart powers near-instant play after downloading only a small portion of the game. Players enjoy playing while the download continues in the background. 

No alt text provided for this image
Source: goetzpartners

In an independent study, goetzpartners found a significant preference for FastStart among gamers, with 91% expressing their satisfaction and their desire to see this technology implemented more broadly, 83% of gamers indicating that FastStart would positively influence their download decisions, and 84% expressing willingness to switch game stores for the same game offered with a FastStart feature.

Game publishers and their content delivery networks (CDNs) often deliver games days in advance of launch to manage server loads and bandwidth. But this comes at a cost! Previously we have discussed the pain faced by gamers when it comes to planning ahead, scheduling downloads, and managing hard drive space in order to fully enjoy a new blockbuster game on its release day. In this article we will explore the consequences faced by game publishers and stores as they meet the surge of Day One demand. 

Today, publishers provide game stores with an early version to support gamers’ routine of preloading a game a few days in advance. One consequence is that patches must be downloaded and installed prior to game start on launch day. As a result, game stores pay avoidable, higher costs for redundant game data delivery. 

CDNs are expected to meet every demand at any time. But these bandwidth peaks come at a higher cost for game stores. Bandwidth peaks on Day One game delivery, season updates or huge patches for blockbuster games are managed by providing more servers and bandwidth to meet the demand. Game stores have to absorb these costs, paying for more bandwidth than actually needed (preload plus launch day patches) while facing a higher price per GB at peak times. This is the Day One Game Delivery Dilemma for Game Stores and CDNs.  

No alt text provided for this image
Steam download bandwidth usage for 48 hours around Cyberpunk Day One game delivery.

So how can we resolve the Day One Game Delivery Dilemma?

At DACSLABS we developed ROCKITPLAY FastStart, a progressive download technology that lets games start with as little as 1% download. Since games can start quickly, there is no need to pre-deliver games. Only the most up to date version is released, no initial patch needed. Benefits include:

The benefits of this data-efficient approach extend beyond just CDNs and game stores. Gamers are able to start their games in mere minutes or even seconds, with no requirement to preload games or wait for sizable day one patches. The ability to play while downloading creates an unmatched user experience. ROCKITPLAY FastStart does not require any game code changes or developer support, and the technology can flip hundreds of games to FastStart almost overnight. 

Ready to join us in our mission to transform game delivery? Discover more about ROCKITPLAY FastStart on our website www.dacslabs.com and connect with us on LinkedIn.

In our next blog, we’ll explore how ROCKITPLAY FastStart is not just a game-changer for the gaming industry, but also a driver for greener, more sustainable game delivery. Stay tuned!

Talking to gamers, one response was unanimous: Gamers hate waiting! Here are some other surprising results from our survey:

No alt text provided for this image

The survey was conducted by INNOFACT on behalf of goetzpartners in 2022 and asked more than 2,000 gamers for their purchase preferences in connection with time-to-play. Just connect and message me if you would like a copy of the report.

While there is a massive suite of tools available to monitor in-game activities to maximize game monetization in every possible way, there is little intelligence on the role of game size in pre-purchase decisions. Based on the survey, 2 out of 3 gamers report to have not purchased a game due to long download times. With free-to-play, 3 out of 4 gamers report to have skipped trying out a new game for good, because of the long wait time. On the contrary, 4 out of 5 gamers report that a feature like FastStart / instant play would positively influence their purchase decision.

In short: Gamers would try more, play more and pay more if they could jump right into action instead of waiting for hours or in some cases days!

ROCKITPLAY FastStart effectively eliminates friction-to-play by bringing instant access to games. It is the only after-market solution that works on any game and does not require game code changes or developer support. If you want to learn more please visit www.dacslabs.com or connect here on LinkedIn.

Services like Netflix and YouTube have driven innovation in video compression technology to support lower latency, higher resolution and improved video quality. In the games industry we haven’t seen an analog – the core technology for delivering games has remained unchanged. Games and required patches continue to grow, and the advent of generative AI is making it easier to create more detailed, larger games. The impact is real: “Warzone dev says game is losing players over “insane” download sizes”, arstechnia.com 3/28/22, and developers need to leave out expansions and content. The cost and carbon footprint are staggering. Data transportation has a significant carbon footprint, and game delivery alone accounts for 5% to 10% of all Internet traffic in most countries.

These problems are magnified for subscription services, where the opportunity to provide access to a wide library of games gets bogged down by long download times and mind boggling drive space consumption. Users are accustomed to offload and download subscription content from Netflix or Spotify. The existing infrastructure seems poorly prepared to handle the challenges of big games driven through subscription services. Games can take several hours to download, which if you think about it, make game subscriptions bulky and unattractive. The most recent Steam survey states, 45% of gamers have less than 250GB of storage remaining. And the average internet speed is lower than you might think. This means that almost half of users only have room for a few more AAA titles before they run out of local storage.

Robot Cache, a videogame marketplace disrupting video game distribution by enabling gamers to earn and sell their games, is deploying ROCKITPLAY FastStart technology so players don’t have to wait for long downloads or patches ever again. 

There’s a new game store in town that will soon end players’ frustration over long wait times for downloads or patches. Robot Cache, the not-to-be-messed-with game store that lets players trade in games and earn digital currency to get free stuff, will soon start games almost instantly by integrating ROCKITPLAY FastStart from DACSLABS.

The combination of Robot Cache and ROCKITPLAY promises to shake up the small town of game stores. Similar to Netflix or Spotify, as fast as gamers can buy a game digitally, they can start playing. It is like getting to play every game with a Fastlane Pass – go straight to the front of the line and start playing! 

With ROCKITPLAY FastStart technology, gamers start playing games while downloading within seconds or minutes, and patches will be reduced to a fraction of their size, so gamers can play more and wait less. ROCKITPLAY uses a virtual drive powered by a Microsoft Certified Kernel level driver to house fast start games and to store them sequentially according to their required need at runtime. One side effect – if you have an old school hard drive, your game starts and respawns will be accelerated to SSD speeds. That will add some real horsepower to your older PC or Texas-sized game drive. 

If this little morsel isn’t enough, you can read more about what’s to come over at the Robot Cache Blog, or check out our blog series on the future of game stores here on LinkedIn.

There are some things we can’t imagine anymore, such as renting a movie at a store, driving it home and then consuming it. Innovations like Netflix, Spotify & Co. were less a result of consumer complaints, than of brilliant technical advancements opening new business models. And consumers happily adopted it! 

Today, gamers are conditioned to schedule downloads enduring hours of wait. To be fair, the main reason is -or better was- lack of technology allowing instant access to games, which is the only reason for why there are so few complaints.

No alt text provided for this image

In March, an independent firm asked over 2000 gamers if they could suspend disbelief, and imagine starting to play games while downloading with almost zero wait. In addition, they interviewed 11 industry experts, many hailing from today’s biggest game publishers about the impact of such a paradigm shift. 

Gamer Survey Results

Presented with the option that instant access to games would be possible, the answers are almost self-evident:

Click here to view the slideshare of FastStart Market Assessment Gamer Survey Results or message me to get the full Market Study.

Expert Consensus

FastStart is likely to become the standard for digital game delivery based on its value in driving subscription experiences, increasing conversion, and modernizing aging game delivery infrastructure without the pitfalls of heavy investments into building and operating cloud gaming solutions.  

“The benefit to the end-user is undeniable, and still, most providers do not have a proprietary solution. Once a single provider includes a similar solution, it will likely become the market standard to offer Fast-Start.” Chief Business Officer, Fast Game Start Industry Expert Survey Participant 2022.

About ROCKITPLAY FastStart

ROCKITPLAY FastStart is the only aftermarket solution able to bring instant access to any game and cut patching costs by up to 50% – and it is available today. No source code changes or developer support needed.

Reach out and together, we can stand up a test instance on your infrastructure in just a couple of days, making it easy to test FastStart with your games and to evaluate the financial top-line and bottom-line benefits. 

Remember Blockbuster? The game stores of the future will make today’s game stores look like Blockbuster – we will miss the nostalgia but we won’t go back. Gamers are frustrated – games are getting bigger and game delivery, account access, and financial transactions are more complicated and time consuming than ever. Just like Netflix pioneered easy, instant, click-to-play access to movies, soon we will have instant access to games. Infrastructures will operate more efficiently and affordably so more value can be delivered to gamers and developers. How? Through technology that reduces friction to play and enables game stores to reduce costs and lighten their global impact.

Gamers hate waiting! Gamers are blowing their top over long download times, large patches and login procedures. This is a solvable problem. Today, cloud gaming offers instant access, but with lower quality graphics, higher latency, at significantly higher prices than traditional game downloads. Gamers are not willing to take one step forward and two steps back. Games need to start faster, without sacrificing gameplay.

DACSLABS developed ROCKITPLAY using machine learning to deliver games that start almost instantly, with as little as 1% downloaded and reducing patch sizes and therefore delivery costs by 50%. Today, we are the only company that offers this technology, ready to scale as a cloud or licensed service. In September, Valve shared that they are working on a game delivery system that starts games more quickly. Speeding up game delivery and patching is absolutely critical to provide a better experience, and it is now apparent that the rollout of fast start solutions is inevitable. 

A Lower Carbon Footprint

Today, game downloads in the US are already responsible for up to 10% internet traffic. Game stores are expected  to address the massive carbon footprint of gaming. Based on our block-patcher data, we estimate that patches contain over 50% redundant data. Every redundant byte delivered is an opportunity to save bandwidth, reduce friction for gamers, and increase profits for game stores and publishers. Unlike cloud streaming, ROCKITPLAY  actually uses less bandwidth and reduces the carbon impact of gaming.

From Fair Share Publishing to Shop in Shop

The game store of the future might be an un-store, a direct to consumer publishing engine that helps publishers build direct relationships with consumers. Today game publishers pay up to 40% of revenue to game stores. A solution that enables a low cost, easy to manage game distribution infrastructure would enable direct to consumer game publishing, and allow alternative game stores to differentiate and create value. 

Ownership and Transferability as a Service

Game stores of tomorrow will remove barriers between games, social spaces, and stores. Free-to-Play and subscription services can provide gamers with flexibility like the ability to buy virtual goods in one game and move it to other games, trade or share on social media. Users may want to resell games. Instant access will move game logistics out of the way, so stores can focus on games and the user’s experience across games. 

Ready for the Future

At DACSLABS we are on a mission to power game stores of the future. ROCKITPLAY is available today, and yes you can try it out. You don’t need to take our word for it – let’s ask your gamers! Setup is easy (click for video) and, for a limited time, completely free. Just email me at frank@dacslabs.com or reach out here on LinkedIn.