Multiplayer gaming has become the new standard for the gaming industry. For every successful multiplayer game, there are thousands of servers in the background working around the clock to keep the experience enjoyable and lag-free.
Understanding Dedicated Game Servers
So what exactly is dedicated game server hosting? To fully understand this we should break it down into 2 parts, dedicated servers, and game servers.
Game Server Hosting
Game servers often describe the software running on a machine that lets the user create, manage, and host a certain type of game. There are thousands of games that support "Player Owned Game Servers". This is a common method used by game developers to offload the burden of server hosting onto 3rd party hosts and their gaming communities.
Maintaining a stable hosting platform can be a full-time job, we would know as it is our full-time job. Many game developers, especially indie developers are unable to reliably maintain the infrastructure, security, and support needed to host their own servers. This is why many opt to let the community create their own servers through 3rd party hosts such as Pine Hosting.
Dedicated Server Hosting
Dedicated servers are often used to describe the physical hardware that is used to host an application. Servers are essentially just fancy computers that are designed to run under heavy loads without failure. Due to the demanding nature of game servers, many hosts will use consumer hardware such as Ryzen CPUs as they offer much higher single-core performance compared to their server-grade counterparts. Using powerful CPUs can have a drastic improvement on game server performance and it is often an area where larger cloud providers fail to compete. Due to their focus on capacity instead of performance, many larger providers will struggle to run heavily modded game servers.
At Pine Hosting we use some of the latest-generation hardware in our dedicated servers to ensure performance is always at its peak. Below is an image we took when deploying some new servers in our Texas data center.
How Does A Dedicated Game Server Work?
Now that we have explained that dedicated servers are the physical hardware and that game servers are the applications that run on the dedicated servers, what on earth is a "dedicated game server"?
The answer to that is quite simple, they are servers that are specifically designed for hosting game servers and nothing else. This means all resources are 100% allocated to the game servers. There are many general-purpose machines that are designed to run a magnitude of different applications, and dedicated game servers are often designed with the sole purpose of game server hosting.
Many hosts offer packages known as dedicated hosting or "bare metal". This is when a provider rents a full server that is dedicated to the customer. These servers can technically be used for any type of applications or hosting but they are often configured with certain hardware to suit different types of workloads. At Pine Hosting we offer many powerful single-core bare metal servers that are great for game hosting or application hosting. This gives you full access to all the hardware and allows you to use it all personally without needing to share it with other users on the same machine.
Shared Resources vs Dedicated Resources
This is where things can get a bit confusing. Many providers use the term "dedicated game hosting" in reference to the fact that their machines are purely used for game hosting. Some providers may use this to reference the type of resource allocation on machines.
Shared Resources are the most common type of game hosting. This is when a provider puts multiple customers on 1 machine that all share the same cores and memory. This allows servers to remain affordable and high-performance (assuming the provider is responsible with their deployments and does not over-allocate). You can read more about how we determine the lowest usage node to deploy new servers onto, thus ensuring the best possible performance for all our clients.
Dedicated resources are offered by some hosts. These plans are often a lot more expensive but are a hybrid between shared hosting and bare metal dedicated hosting. This is when a hosting provider sells space on a dedicated machine that is reserved for your server only. This is still technically shared hosting as you are sharing a bare metal server with other customers but your "slice" of the resources are reserved for your usage only.
Key Benefits Of Dedicated Game Server Hosting
Picking a provider that specializes in game server hosting offers a lot of perks and benefits that you will likely not find elsewhere.
Specialized Hardware
As we have discussed previously, dedicated game server hosts build machines that are specifically designed to run games well. These high-performance single-core machines are not regularly used by other more broad hosting providers. This is one of the major reasons why customers choose to host with a game hosting provider instead of other companies that don't specialize in managing and creating high-performance gaming servers.
Panel Features
Dedicated game hosts will often have a large variety of built-in panel features that you won't find in other hosts. Features such as instant workshop installers, config managers, and detailed server scheduling are just a few of the important features that game hosts should offer. The quality and extent of this offering can vary quite a bit depending on the hosting provider so it is always important to do your research. At Pine Hosting we invest heavily into our game panel and have developed some of the easiest-to-use panel features in the industry. You can read more about one of our major panel updates on our blog. A game host provider that doesn't offer these features can make managing a server a very difficult and confusing process, especially for beginners.
Knowledgeable Support
Getting stuck while creating a game server is normal, but without the correct tutorials and a knowledgeable support team to assist it can become incredibly frustrating. Many hosting companies offer little to no support for game hosting unless they are a dedicated game host. At Pine Hosting we pride ourselves in our highly trained and knowledgeable support team. We also constantly put effort into creating informative YouTube tutorials as well as knowledgebase articles.
What Types Of Games Are Great For Dedicated Game Server Hosting?
As we briefly mentioned earlier, dedicated game server hosting is perfect for games that support "Player Owned Game Servers". Dedicated game hosting oftentimes will not work for games that operate their own servers and do not allow users to customize them. An example would be a game like Fortnite.
Thankfully there is an ever-growing list of games that allow their users to create and customize their own servers. This is a trend that is becoming even more popular with new games and indie games and strongly encourages community collaboration and creativity.
Some of the most famous games that support dedicated game server hosting are:
Dedicated Game Server FAQ's
Hopefully, all our information above covers the important points about dedicated game hosting. Below we've listed a few common questions we get asked as a dedicated game server host.
How much does a dedicated game server cost?
Game server packages can vary significantly from different providers and even between different games. Most hosts aim to keep their packages fairly affordable and offer easy upgrading options. Many of our packages start at $10 and can be upgraded or downgraded as you require.
For a more detailed overview of how much game server hosting costs feel free to check out our other blog.
How do I set up a dedicated server?
Setting up a dedicated server can be super simple if you are looking to just host game servers. It can become a bit more complex when you are looking to host multiple applications or websites. Thankfully, there are plenty of helpful tutorials online and our support team is available 24/7 to assist any of our dedicated customers with technical questions.
How much RAM do I need for a dedicated server?
When purchasing a bare metal dedicated server it is important to consider the amount of RAM you will need. An easy way to do this is by using memory calculator tools like our Rust Ram Calculator to determine how much each server will need. From there you can multiply this by the amount of servers you want to host on your machine to work out the amount of RAM needed for your dedicated server. Remember to always leave some overhead so you don't face any issues!
Pine Hosting Dedicated Game Server Hosting
At Pine Hosting we offer high-quality dedicated game server offerings for all our clients. With our robust infrastructure, high-performance hardware, and quality features we make game server hosting a breeze.
Start your server hosting journey today by purchasing any of our game server packages.
