As Online Gaming Demand Doubles During Pandemic, Equinix and i3D.net with Ubisoft Accelerate Underlying Digital Infrastructure

Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the world’s digital infrastructure company™, has been chosen by application hosting and infrastructure service provider i3D.net to support its global gaming platform. Acquired by one of the world’s largest game publishers, Ubisoft, i3D.net provides a global low-latency network and has partnered with Equinix to gain proximity to its end users following an uptick in activity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The gaming market is experiencing solid growth and is forecast to increase from US$42.2 billion in 2020 to US$46.7b in 2025. In addition to organic worldwide expansion, i3D.net saw its gaming business grow significantly during the 2020 lockdowns with capacity needs doubling. With an uptick in usage and global demand for a highly immersive and consistent end-user experience, as well as new game launches, e-sports events and popularity spikes of a particular game, the need for high-speed connectivity to sync games and perform deployment tests increased.

i3D.net moved its gaming platform to Platform Equinix®—integrating into 38 Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers across the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe—to provide the low-latency connectivity necessary to ensure a seamless gaming experience. Widespread cloud adoption and access have changed the way video and mobile games are developed, delivered and played. By rearchitecting its supporting digital infrastructure accordingly, i3D.net can offer scalability and an instant immersive gaming experience, regardless of location.

“With online gaming undergoing an unprecedented surge in popularity during the pandemic, Equinix can strategically support i3D.net in delivering the best possible user experience to gamers around the world,” said Matt George, Director of Segment Marketing, EMEA, Equinix. “Gamers are always striving to level-up, pushing themselves to better their skills and expanding their game-base; they expect nothing less from developers and providers. With new levels of demand, gaming platforms must be supported by robust digital infrastructure to enable the transfer of information at high speeds to ensure smooth game playing, while also offering the utmost security to protect sensitive player details.”

Equinix will provide i3D.net with a dependable and highly connected global infrastructure that offers the requisite processing power and network speed to perform game development builds quickly, using a point-to-point approach. Equinix is the foundation behind the single portal that i3D.net offers its customers where they can easily scale highly customized gaming environments and traffic for the best customer experience. It allocates gaming traffic to burst into multiple cloud accounts that gamers need from AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, through the interconnection of 40 exchanges.

Rick Sloot, Chief Operating Officer, i3D.net, commented: “We are committed to providing the best experience for our users’ gaming platforms, no matter where they are, so our network is one of the most important pillars of our company. Having healthy interconnection services that connect the i3D.net network with Platform Equinix means we can deliver the lowest latency to our end users, removing the frustration of in-game lag. Equinix’s interconnection services are extremely reliable and powerful, allowing us to grow anywhere in the world. We go to Equinix with the growth we are expecting, then they deploy the interconnection and products needed with predictability; that gives us peace of mind.”

Equinix and i3D.net (along with Ubisoft) have a shared outlook on sustainability with both companies announcing their ambition to reduce their carbon footprint. Equinix is the first data center operator to commit to reaching climate-neutral by 2030 globally, backed by science-based targets and a sustainability innovation agenda, while Ubisoft plans to be carbon-neutral by the same deadline.

i3D.net has deployed at Equinix locations in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Dubai, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Madrid, Milan, Paris, São Paulo, Seattle, Silicon Valley, Singapore, Sweden, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Warsaw and Washington, D.C.

Some of the coverage is available below: 

TechNews.bg: Equinix accelerates Ubisoft’s digital infrastructure

Digitalk.bg: Equinix will support i3D.net’s gaming platform

Economy.bg: Equinix announced new partnership with i3D.net, part of Ubisoft