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.

We’re proud to announce our new partnership with Xsolla, a leading platform for direct-to-consumer game distribution and monetization. Together, we have integrated ROCKITPLAY FastStart technology into the Xsolla Publisher Suite to eliminate friction to play. With FastStart, Xsolla honors gamers’ time by cutting download wait times and patching timeouts from hours to seconds. The smart download manager keeps shuffling data in the background while playing. No more scheduling downloads, preloading games for release day or giant day one patches. For the first time jumping into games becomes as convenient as streaming media, but with the full performance of local play.

“We believe in equipping studios with the tools they need to succeed. FastStart offers a truly frictionless experience for gamers,” said Chris Hewish, Chief Strategy Officer at Xsolla. “By bringing instant, streaming-like access to games, we’re giving developers and publishers the best possible chance to attract and retain players.”

This collaboration removes the biggest hurdles players face on the road to becoming players and paying customers – long downloads and massive patch updates – by replacing them with a streaming-like experience that starts gameplay in seconds. With ROCKITPLAY FastStart, games can start with as little as 1% downloaded, bringing unprecedented convenience to gamers.

Competition for visibility often leaves game publishers with limited opportunities to tell their story or engage potential players effectively. By going direct to consumers, publishers can own customer relationships, reinforce social and online connections, and market future content to their audience. Beyond improving the player experience, the integration of ROCKITPLAY FastStart offers significant business advantages:

Feel free to reach out to learn how Xsolla + FastStart transforms game delivery and user engagement. Read the announcement from Xsolla online.

We’ve all been there. You’re eager to dive into a new game, but first you wrestle with limited hard drive space, deciding which favorites to uninstall. Then comes the long wait for downloads and updates, watching progress bars creep forward while your excitement wanes. If you’re exploring new titles or using subscription services, massive game sizes turn what should be an adventure into a test of patience. ROCKITPLAY FastStart transforms game distribution by addressing these pain points – easing storage woes, eliminating long waits, and providing click-to-play access to trials and subscriptions.

Managing Hard Drive Space

With new AAA titles easily occupying 100GB or more, gamers need to constantly assess their game library and decide which games to uninstall before adding a new title. With FastStart, this pain is gone.  When the urge to revisit strikes, FastStart enables players to jump right back into the action almost instantly, without waiting for a massive re-download, because gameplay starts in seconds or minutes after the download starts.

Long Downloads and Patches

Nothing kills excitement faster than staring at a download bar creeping slowly toward completion. Gamers are eager to dive into new worlds, not wait hours for downloads and patches to finish. With FastStart technology, gameplay starts  with as little as 1% of the total game data downloaded. Additionally, FastPatch reduces the size of game updates, so you spend less time waiting and more time playing.

DACSLABS has developed ROCKITPLAY, a groundbreaking technology that transforms digital game distribution by offering a streaming-like, click-to-play experience for any PC game. This patented, Microsoft-certified solution eliminates long download times and enhances user engagement without requiring any game source code changes or developer support.

In a universe of content, you want players to discover your game!

Unfortunately, discoverability has become insanely difficult, especially for games from smaller publishers and Indie developers. The number of new games has exploded – Steam now boasts a dizzying 75,000 games, up from just 3,000 a decade ago – making it harder than ever to win visibility and capture users.

While game stores have introduced search tools like filters, tags, curated collections, the system seems to favor the top few titles. This means that smaller publishers cannot rely on organic game store traffic – they need to promote their game and create demand on their own.

After all, no one is in a better position to tell your game’s story than yourself. And for once social media is the perfect outlet to connect to your community directly. But how can publishers turn those interactions into new, paying players?

Today, DACS LABS GmbH is introducing ROCKIT instantPLAY, a powerful marketing tool that provides a click-to-play experience for any game, eliminating friction-to-play and increasing user engagement, conversion and revenues. Users jump straight into gameplay from links placed in ads, social feeds, or shares, and play while downloading. This also effectively eliminates dropouts due to long downloads. But the real winners are the gamers, who can play in seconds and decide for themselves if a game is as it sounds!

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ROCKIT instantPLAY uses FastStart technology to offer immediate play for PC games, game trials or demos with a streamlined installer designed to minimize friction. In the past, an ad might point to more information, or a video, and link to a game store. Now, an ad or post is a magic portal straight into gameplay. With ROCKIT instantPLAY, it has never been easier to build your direct-to-consumer relationship, powered by almost frictionless conversion from marketing to gameplay.

If you are headed to Malmö to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Nordic Game Conference, we would be glad to meet. DACS LABS GmbH is helping game publishers go consumer-direct, and powering next generation game stores with ROCKITPLAY FastStart. Learn more at www.rockitplay.com and meet us in Malmö 2024, 21.-24. May.

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.

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.

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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.

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.

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ROCKIPLAY FastStart Accelerates Game Delivery, Providing Almost Instant Access for Games and Powering Next Generaton Game Stores and Game Subscription Services

ROCKITPLAY FastStart is an easy upgrade to the infrastructure for game delivery. Game starts are so fast, that users don’t necessarily have to store a game locally to play. Patches are reduced by about 50%, so Internet traffic is significantly reduced too. But most importantly, the overhead necessary to run FastStart is almost zero, and game developers don’t need to change any code.

Game Stores and emerging subscription services have a lot to worry about. Ease of use and instant gratification are the core of every subscription service. ROCKITPLAY is a patented, Microsoft Certified turn-key aftermarket solution that brings instant access while reducing carbon emissions through simply delivering less data.