Amazon GameLift release notes - Amazon GameLift
SDK versionsRelease notes

Amazon GameLift release notes

The Amazon GameLift release notes provide details about new features, updates, and fixes related to the service.

SDK versions

The following tables list all Amazon GameLift releases with SDK version information. There is no requirement to use comparable SDKs for your game server and client integrations. However, earlier versions of one SDK may not fully support the latest features in another.

For more information about Amazon GameLift SDKs, see Get Amazon GameLift development tools.

To get the latest Amazon GameLift SDKs, see the Amazon GameLift SDKs download site.

Current version

Service release AWS SDK Server SDK Realtime client SDK
C# C# plugin for Unity C++ C++ plugin for Unreal Go
2024-11-12 1.11.445 or later 5.2.0 5.2.0 5.2.0 5.2.0 5.2.0 1.2.0
Service release AWS SDK Server SDK Realtime client SDK
C# C# plugin for Unity C++ C++ plugin for Unreal Go
2024-09-19 1.11.225 or later 5.1.2 5.1.2 5.1.3 5.1.2 5.1.0 1.2.0
2024-02-13 1.11.225 or later 5.1.2 5.1.2 5.1.2 5.1.1 5.1.0 1.2.0
2023-12-14 1.11.225 or later 5.1.1 5.1.0 5.1.1 5.1.0 5.0.0 1.2.0
2023-11-02 1.11.193 or later 5.1.1 5.1.0 5.1.1 5.1.0 5.0.0 1.2.0
2023-09-28 1.11.144 or later 5.1.1 5.1.0 5.1.1 5.1.0 5.0.0 1.2.0
2023-08-17 1.11.144 or later 5.1.1 5.1.0 5.1.1 5.1.0 5.0.0 1.2.0
2023-07-27 1.11.111 or later 5.1.0 (.NET 4 & 6 now combined) 5.1.0 5.1.0 5.0.2 5.0.0 1.2.0
2023-06-29 1.11.111 or later 5.0.0 .NET 4, .NET 6 5.0.4 5.0.2 5.0.0 1.2.0
2023-06-15 1.11.87 or later 5.0.0 .NET 4, .NET 6 5.0.4 5.0.2 5.0.0 1.2.0
2023-05-25 1.11.87 or later 5.0.0 .NET 4, .NET 6 5.0.3 5.0.2 5.0.0 1.2.0
2023-04-20 1.11.63 or later 5.0.0 .NET 4, .NET 6 5.0.3 5.0.2 5.0.0 1.2.0
2023-04-13 1.10.21 or later 5.0.0 .NET 4, .NET 6 5.0.0 5.0.0 5.0.0 1.2.0
2023-02-09 1.10.21 or later 5.0.0 .NET 4, .NET 6 5.0.0 3.4.0 5.0.0 1.2.0
2023-01-31 1.10.21 or later 5.0.0 5.0.0 3.4.0 5.0.0 1.2.0
2022-12-01 1.10.21 or later 5.0.0 5.0.0 3.4.0 1.2.0
2022-08-25 1.9.333 or later 4.0.2 3.4.2 3.4.0 1.2.0
2021-10-28 1.9.133 or later 4.0.2 3.4.2 3.4.0 1.2.0
2021-06-03 1.8.168 or later 4.0.2 3.4.2 3.4.0 1.2.0
2021-03-23 1.8.168 or later 4.0.2 3.4.1 3.3.3 1.1.0
2021-03-16 1.8.163 or later 4.0.2 3.4.1 3.3.3 1.1.0
2021-02-09 1.8.139 or later 4.0.2 3.4.1 3.3.3 1.1.0
2020-12-22 1.8.95 or later 4.0.2 3.4.1 3.3.3 1.1.0
2020-11-24 1.8.95 or later 4.0.2 3.4.1 3.3.2 1.1.0
2020-11-11 1.8.36 or later 4.0.2 3.4.1 3.3.2 1.1.0
2020-09-17 1.8.36 or later 4.0.1 3.4.1 3.3.2 1.1.0
2020-08-27 1.7.310 or later 4.0.0 3.4.0 3.3.1 1.1.0
2020-04-16 1.7.310 or later 4.0.0 3.4.0 3.3.1 1.1.0
2020-04-02 1.7.310 or later 3.4.0 3.4.0 1.1.0
2019-12-19 1.7.249 or later 3.4.0 3.4.0 1.1.0
2019-11-14 1.7.210 or later 3.4.0 3.4.0 1.1.0
2019-10-24 1.7.210 or later 3.4.0 3.4.0 1.1.0
2019-09-03 1.7.175 or later 3.4.0 3.4.0 1.1.0
2019-07-09 1.7.140 or later 3.3.0 3.3.0 1.0.0
2019-04-25 1.7.91 or later 3.3.0 3.3.0 1.0.0
2019-03-07 1.7.65 or later 3.3.0 3.3.0
2019-02-07 1.7.45 or later 3.3.0 3.3.0
2018-12-14 1.6.20 or later 3.3.0 3.3.0
2018-09-27 1.6.20 or later 3.2.1 3.2.1
2018-06-14 1.4.47 or later 3.2.1 3.2.1
2018-05-10 1.4.47 or later 3.2.1 3.2.1
2018-02-15 1.3.58 or later 3.2.1 3.2.1
2018-02-08 1.3.52 or later 3.2.0 3.2.0
2017-09-01 1.1.43 or later 3.1.7 3.1.7
2017-08-16 1.1.31 or later 3.1.7 3.1.7
2017-05-16 1.0.122 or later 3.1.5 3.1.5
2017-04-11 1.0.103 or later 3.1.5 3.1.5
2017-02-21 1.0.72 or later 3.1.5 3.1.5
2016-11-18 1.0.31 or later 3.1.0
2016-10-13 1.0.17 or later 3.1.0
2016-09-01 0.14.9 or later 3.1.0
2016-08-04 0.12.16 or later 3.0.7

Release notes

The following release notes are in chronological order, with the latest updates listed first. Amazon GameLift was first released in 2016. For release notes dated earlier than those listed here, see the release date links in SDK versions.

Updated SDK versions:

  • AWS SDK 1.11.445

  • Server SDK, version 5.2.0 (all languages)

Amazon GameLift releases for general availability a new hosting solution for containerized game server workloads. With this release, game developers can now take advantage of the benefits of containerization including consistent, secure environments, a simplified deployment process, and optimized resource utilization.

Managed containers provide fleets of Amazon EC2 instances that are managed by Amazon GameLift on your behalf and based on your configurations. You build a custom container architecture for your game and provide container images by storing them in a Amazon Elastic Container Registry (Amazon ECR) repository. Container fleets are available for Linux-based game servers only. Game servers must be integrated with Server SDK 5.2.0 or greater.

With managed container fleets you get all of same benefits as managed EC2 fleets. This includes support for On-Demand and Spot instance types, intelligent capacity scaling, game session placement with queues, and matchmaking. You also get the same metrics as other fleet types along with some new ones for containers. Other features for container fleets include:

  • Alignment with serverless experience for containerized workloads. Run one game server process per container and pack many containers onto each fleet instance for optimal resource usage. If you prefer to have containers with multiple game server processes, you can use the Amazon GameLift Agent for automated host management.

  • Streamlined fleet creation. Container fleets are designed to support minimal deployments, with sensible suggested/default values. This feature helps you get a working fleet up and running, and then customize individual settings as needed.

  • Tools for managing updates and versioning for container architecture. You can now update a container group definition (similar to a container task) and maintain multiple versions.

  • Tools for updating container fleets. You no longer need to create a new fleet whenever you want to release a game server version update. Instead, you can now update your container image and deploy the updates to existing fleets.

You can build Amazon GameLift container fleets in any AWS Region where Amazon GameLift supports multi-location fleets, and you can deploy container fleet instances to any supported remote location. For more details, see Amazon GameLift service locations. Managed containers is not currently available in AWS China Regions.

Learn more:

Updated SDK versions:

C++ Server SDK, version 5.1.3

  • New logging capabilities. You can now access SDK request logs.

  • Improved SDK message transmission reliability. The SDK now uses more robust reconnection mechanisms to recover in the event of network interruptions or random message drops.

Updated plugin versions:

Amazon GameLift plugin for Unreal Engine, version 1.1.2

  • Upgraded to support the latest version of the C++ server SDK 5.1.3.

  • In the Amazon GameLift plugin for Unreal Engine, when browsing for a server build executable for a fleet, you now have the option to browse All Files.

C++ Server SDK Plugin for Unreal, version 5.1.2

  • Upgraded to support the latest version of the C++ server SDK 5.1.3.

Learn more:

Based on customer feedback, we've clarified the Amazon GameLift workflow for creating a managed EC2 fleet and getting it ready to host game sessions. Improvements include:

  • We've provided more specific and accurate descriptions of each phase of the fleet creation process. This improved visibility makes it easier to pinpoint and resolve issues faster.

  • The Building and Activating phases better separate instance deployment tasks (building) from tasks to start game server processes and connect to the Amazon GameLift service (activating). This change makes it easier to recognize the likely cause of issues. In addition, you can now remotely connect to fleets when they're in the Activating phase.

  • Two new fleet creation events communicate the success or failure of game server install scripts. If you're game server build includes an install script, Amazon GameLift attempts to run the script and emits one of the following new events:

    • FLEET_CREATION_COMPLETED_INSTALLER

    • FLEET_CREATION_FAILED_INSTALLER

Learn more:

Based on customer feedback, we've made the following updates to the Amazon GameLift console experience:

  • Your display preferences for pages are now automatically saved to your AWS account user and applied whenever you return to the page. Display preferences let you choose what information to include in a table display, such as on the Fleets listing page. Customize your display preferences by using the Gear icon representing settings or configuration options. icon in the upper right corner of a table.

  • The Create Fleet workflow for managed EC2 fleets has been streamlined to combine the selection of fleet locations and instance types. We've made it easier for you to find the right instance type for your fleet, even when you change your locations selections.

Learn more:

With Amazon GameLift managed hosting, you can now deploy game server resources in Nigeria, West Africa, and extend the reach of your games to players throughout Africa. Use AWS Local Zones to place game servers geographically closer to your players to reduce latency and significantly improve gameplay.

To immediately begin hosting game sessions in Nigeria, add the new Nigeria Local Zone as a remote location to a new or existing multi-location fleet. If your game uses Amazon GameLift FlexMatch, update fleets in your matchmaking queue to include the new Local Zone. With multi-location fleets, you can directly manage hosting capacity in each location.

The parent AWS Region for the Lagos, Nigeria Local Zone is the Africa (Cape Town) Region (af-south-1), which Amazon GameLift also supports as a remote location. The Nigeria Local Zone name is af-south-1-los-1.

Learn more:

The Amazon GameLift console now offers a player session lookup tool that lets you retrieve player session information by game session ID, player session ID, or player ID. Games that use FlexMatch matchmaking automatically generate player sessions for every matched player. For all other games, player sessions are an optional feature.

You can find the player session lookup tool in the main navigation for the Amazon GameLift console. View individual player sessions or compare data across multiple player sessions. You can also open player session data when viewing a game session detail page.

Learn more:

Amazon GameLift is now offering a preview of container fleets, which give you improved portability, scalability, fault tolerance, and agility.

In container fleets, Amazon EC2 instances host one or more of your containers. These containers include your game server along with whatever it requires, including dependencies and configurations. Examples of dependencies include SDKs and software packages. After you upload your container to your private Amazon Elastic Container Registry, Amazon GameLift populates your fleet with the container.

To function in a container fleet, your game server must run in Linux and be integrated with Server SDK 5.x. In a container fleet, you have fine-tuned control of hosting resources so that you can optimize consumption of resources such as CPU units and memory. You can also host multiple game servers in a container to reduce the use of resources.

In a container fleet you get many of the same benefits that other types of fleets have such as On-Demand instance types, scaling (automatic and manual), queues, and matchmaking. You also get the same metrics as other fleet types along with some new ones for containers. Container fleets give you global reach to players in these locations regions:

  • ap-northeast-1

  • ap-northeast-2

  • ap-southeast-2

  • eu-central-1

  • eu-west-1

  • us-east-1

  • us-west-2

To reach even more regions and local zones, create multi-location containers fleets.

Learn more:

Updated SDK versions:

  • Go Server SDK, version 5.1.0

  • C# Server SDK, version 5.1.2

  • C++ Server SDK, version 5.1.2

We made the following improvements:

  • Improved the reliability of the SDK by adding automatic reconnection in the event of network interruption.

  • [Go] You can now call InitSDK() with or without server parameters. Game servers that run on Amazon GameLift managed EC2 fleets read the server parameters directly from environment variables. Game servers on Amazon GameLift Anywhere fleets must call InitSDK() with server parameters.

Updated plugin versions:

  • Amazon GameLift plugin for Unreal Engine, version 1.1.0

  • Amazon GameLift plugin for Unity, version 2.1.0

  • C++ Server SDK Plugin for Unreal, version 5.1.1

  • C# Server SDK Plugin for Unity, version 5.1.2

We made the following improvements:

  • [Amazon GameLift plugin for Unreal Engine] Updated the installation instructions and simplified the packaging. This plugin now includes the latest version of the C++ Server SDK for Unreal.

  • Upgraded the plugins to support the latest version of the GameLift Server SDK.

Learn more:

You've already been able to set game properties when creating game sessions, and to search game sessions for specified properties. Now you can also add and update these properties in an active game session.

For example, your players vote on a map that they want to play on. Your game client calls UpdateGameSession to modify a GameProperty value to {"Key": "map", "Value":"jungle"}. Your game then implements the new map for the players in the game session.

Game administrators can also retrieve useful data from game properties by using the SearchGameSessions operation. For example, administrators can list game sessions that have a Status value of ACTIVE and this game property: {"Key": "map", "Value":"desert"}.

Learn more:

You can now manage your entire Amazon GameLift resource stack using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools. These tools include AWS CloudFormation, and also third-party tools such as Terraform and Pulumi. With this added support, you can now focus on building your game, and leverage DevOps strategies to take care of resource management, CI/CD, and deployment to your customers.

You can also now provision and configure all Amazon GameLift resources types by using the AWS Cloud Control API. You can continue to work with resources using the Amazon GameLift APIs or the AWS CloudFormation templates for Amazon GameLift.

For details about the Amazon GameLift resources available through IaC, see the Amazon GameLift resource type reference Amazon GameLift resource type reference.

In addition, you can now automatically scale your fleets using AWS CloudFormation templates or the AWS Cloud Control API by using the new Fleet property: ScalingPolicies.

The Cloud Control API gives developers a standard set of APIs to create, read, update, delete, and list resources (CRUDL) across hundreds of AWS services and multiple third-party tools like Terraform and Pulumi.

Learn more:

Updated SDK versions: Amazon GameLift plugin for Unity, version 2.0.0

The Amazon GameLift plugin for Unity provides tools and workflows that streamline the steps to getting your Unity game up and running for cloud hosting with Amazon GameLift. Amazon GameLift is a fully managed service that lets game developers manage and scale dedicated game servers for session-based multiplayer games.

With this version, the plugin for Unity is updated to use the latest Amazon GameLift features, including server SDK version 5.x and support for local testing with Amazon GameLift Anywhere. The plugin is compatible with Unity versions Unity 2021.3 LTS and 2022.3 LTS.

Key plugin features include:

  • Guided UI workflows in the Unity editor for the following scenarios:

    • Test your game integration with Amazon GameLift using your local workstation as a host. This workflow helps you set up an Amazon GameLift Anywhere fleet for your local machine, launch instances of your game server and client, request a game session through Amazon GameLift, and join the game.

    • Deploy cloud hosting solution for your integrated game server with Amazon GameLift managed EC2 and supporting AWS resources. This workflow helps you configure your game for cloud hosting, and provides three deployment scenarios:

      • Deploy the game server to a single fleet.

      • Deploy the game server to a set of low-cost Spot fleets in multiple AWS Regions.

      • Deploy the game server with a FlexMatch matchmaker.

  • Ability to set up user profiles that link to an AWS account user and set a default AWS Region. You can maintain multiple profiles to work in different AWS accounts, account users, and regions.

  • Special conveniences that help streamline the Amazon GameLift integration and deployment processes, including:

    • Each hosting solution includes supporting AWS resources, including an Amazon Cognito user pool that provides unique player IDs and player validation. The solutions also include an Amazon S3 bucket for storage, Amazon SNS event notification, AWS Lambda functions, and other resources.

    • For the Anywhere workflow, the plugin automates the required server parameter settings.

    • For the Amazon EC2 workflow, each deployment solution provides a built-in client backend service using Lambda functions. The backend service sits between the game client and the Amazon GameLift service and manages all direct calls to the Amazon GameLift service.

  • Content for integration testing, including assets and code for a simple sample multiplayer game to illustrate game server and game client integration.

  • Plugin documentation with detailed integration guidance and sample code.

All deployment scenarios, including for Anywhere and Amazon EC2 fleets, use AWS CloudFormation templates to describe and deploy the AWS resources for your game's solution. These templates are included in the Amazon GameLift plugin download. You can use them as is or customize them for your game.

Learn more:

Updated SDK versions: AWS SDK 1.11.193

The new Amazon GameLift shared credentials feature allows applications that are deployed on managed EC2 fleets to interact with other AWS resources. This update affects applications that you bundle and deploy along with game server binaries integrated with server SDK version 5.x or later. (Game server executables can already request credentials using the server SDK 5.x GetFleetRoleCredentials() action.)

For example, if you want to deploy your game server build with an Amazon CloudWatch agent to collect EC2 instance metrics and other data, the agent needs permission to interact with your CloudWatch resources. To do this, you must first set up an AWS Identity and Access Management IAM) role with permissions to use the CloudWatch resources, and then configure a fleet with the IAM role and shared credentials enabled. When Amazon GameLift deploys your game server build to each EC2 instance, it generates a shared credentials file and stores it on the instance. All applications on the instance can use the shared credentials. Amazon GameLift automatically refreshes the temporary credentials throughout the life of the instance.

You can enable shared credentials when you create a managed EC2 fleet using the following methods:

  • In the Amazon GameLift console fleet creation workflow.

  • When calling the Amazon GameLift service API operation CreateFleet using the new parameter InstanceRoleCredentialsProvider.

  • When calling the AWS CLI operation aws gamelift create-fleet with the parameter instance-role-credentials-provider.

Learn more:

Updated SDK versions: Amazon GameLift plugin for Unreal Engine version 1.0.0

The Amazon GameLift plugin for Unreal Engine provides tools and workflows that streamline your steps to getting a game up and running with Amazon GameLift for cloud hosting. Amazon GameLift is a fully managed service that lets game developers manage and scale dedicated game servers for session-based multiplayer games. The plugin supports UE versions 5.0, 5.1, and 5.2. Key features include:

  • Guided UI workflows in the Unreal editor ]step through the following paths:

    • Test your game integration with Amazon GameLift using your local workstation as a host. This workflow helps you set up an Amazon GameLift Anywhere fleet for your local machine, launch instances of your game server and client, request a game session through Amazon GameLift, and get connection information for the new game session.

    • Deploy an Amazon EC2 cloud hosting solution for your integrated game server. This workflow helps you configure your game for cloud hosting, and provides three different deployment scenarios: deploy to a single fleet, deploy to a set of spot fleets in multiple regions, or deploy to a set of fleets with a FlexMatch matchmaker. The solution for each deployment scenario includes Amazon GameLift resources and supporting AWS resources.

  • Ability to set up user profiles that link to an AWS account user and define a default AWS Region. You can maintain multiple profiles to work in different AWS accounts, account users, and regions.

  • Special conveniences that help streamline the Amazon GameLift integration and deployment processes, including:

    • Each hosting solution includes supporting AWS resources, including a basic Amazon Cognito user pool that provides unique player IDs, an Amazon S3 bucket for storage, Amazon SNS event notification, and AWS Lambda functions.

    • For the Anywhere workflow, the plugin automates the required server parameter settings using command line arguments.

    • For the Amazon EC2 workflow, each deployment solution provides a built-in client backend service using Lambda functions. The backend service receives requests from game clients and passes them on to the Amazon GameLift service.

  • Content for integration testing, including a starter game map and two testing maps with basic blueprints and UI elements.

  • Plugin documentation with detailed integration guidance and sample code.

All deployment scenarios, including for Anywhere and Amazon EC2 fleets, use AWS CloudFormation templates to describe the solutions. The plugin uses these templates when deploying Amazon GameLift resources for your game. These templates are included in the Amazon GameLift plugin download and are editable. You can use them as is or modify them for your game.

Learn more:

Updated SDK versions: AWS SDK 1.11.144

With Amazon GameLift you can now host your games in the cloud using EC2 instances with AWS Graviton processors. Designed by AWS with Arm64-based processors, Graviton instances deliver the best price performance for cloud workloads using EC2, with up to 40% improvement over comparable x86-based instances. The latest Graviton3 processors offer up to 25% better compute performance over earlier versions.

With Amazon GameLift, you can now select from these new instances in the AWS Graviton family:

  • Graviton2-based instances: c6g, c6gn, r6g, m6g, g5g

  • Graviton3-based instances: c7g, r7g, m7g

Learn more:

  • AWS Graviton Processor: Learn about the benefits and practical uses of Graviton-based EC2 instances.

  • Getting started with Graviton: Get an overview of the Graviton-based instances and insights on how applications run on them depending on their operating system, languages, and run times.

Note

Graviton Arm instances require an Amazon GameLift server build on Linux OS. Server SDK 5.1.1 or newer is required for C++ and C#. Server SDK 5.0 or newer is required for Go. These instances provide no out-of-the-box support for Mono installation on Amazon Linux 2023 (AL2023) or Amazon Linux 2 (AL2).

Updated SDK versions: Server SDK for C++, C#/Unity, Unreal 5.1.0

The newest release of the Amazon GameLift server SDK delivers updates for C++, C#, and the Unreal plugin, and a new plugin for use with the Unity game engine. Game developers integrate the Amazon GameLift server SDK into game servers that they deploy for hosting on Amazon GameLift.

The latest server SDK version contains the following updates, which include a number of customer requests:

  • Download language-specific SDK packages – The updated Amazon GameLift download site contains SDK packages for each language. You can download current or previous versions.

  • New C# server SDK plugin for Unity – The new server SDK package for Unity contains built C# libraries that you can install using the package manager in Unity Editor (see the new Unity integration guide). These libraries include the required dependencies through UnityNuGet. You can use this plugin with Unity 2020.3 LTS, 2021.3 LTS and 2022.3 LTS for Windows and Mac OS. It supports Unity's .NET Framework and .NET Standard profiles, with .NET Standard 2.1 and .NET 4.x.

  • Consolidated .NET solution for C# – The server SDK for C# now supports .NET Framework 4.6.2 (upgraded from 4.6.1) and .NET 6.0 in a single solution. .NET Standard 2.1 is available with the Unity-built libraries.

  • Server SDK 5.1.0 updates

    • [C++, C#, Unreal] You can now call InitSDK() with or without server parameters. Game servers that run on Amazon GameLift managed EC2 fleets read the server parameters directly from environment variables. Game servers on Amazon GameLift Anywhere fleets must call InitSDK() with server parameters.

    • [C++, C#, Unreal] Server SDK calls have improved error messaging.

    • [C++ SDK] To improve Server SDK build times, the build flag -DRUN_CLANG_FORMAT is disabled by default. You can enable it with -DRUN_CLANG_FORMAT=1.

    • [C++ SDK] When building the libraries without the standard libraries (-DGAMELIFT_USE_STD=0), InitSDK() no longer uses std:: data types.

  • Expanded server SDK 5.x documentation

  • Additional documentation updates

    • Revised documentation for Amazon GameLift service API operations GetComputeAccess and GetInstanceAccess to clarify remote access procedures based on the Amazon GameLift server SDK version in use.

    • Revised descriptions for GameSessionPlacement to document how game session information is transient when a placement is in "pending" status.

You can now track hardware performance metrics for your Amazon GameLift managed EC2 fleets. Metrics include EC2 instance metrics for CPU utilization, network traffic volume, and disk read/write activity. For Amazon GameLift, these metrics describe all active instances in a fleet location. You can view these fleet hardware metrics using an Amazon CloudWatch dashboard in the AWS Management Console. You can also view them in the Amazon GameLift console in fleet details.

Learn more:

Updated SDK versions: AWS SDK 1.11.111

Amazon GameLift customers can now use the Amazon Linux 2023 operating system to host their game servers. AL2023 offers several improvements over AL2 including security. This operating system is available in all AWS Regions with the exception of the China Regions.

Customers can use the newer Linux operating systems and continue to receive critical security updates when support ends for Amazon Linux (AL1) in December 2023. Support for Amazon Linux 2 continues through June 30, 2025.

Learn more:

Updated SDK versions: AWS SDK 1.11.87

If you use Amazon GameLift FleetIQ for game hosting, you can now prevent game session placements on instances that are currently draining. Draining instances are flagged for shutdown, but they can still be selected to host new game sessions if no other hosting resources are available. With this new feature, you can exclude the use of draining instances entirely.

Use this feature when calling ClaimGameServer to find available game servers. Add the new FilterOption parameter and set allowed instance statuses to ACTIVE only. In response, Amazon GameLift FleetIQ looks only at active instances when searching for and claiming an available game server.

Learn more:

Amazon GameLift customers can now use AWS Billing cost allocation tags to organize their game hosting costs. You can assign cost allocation tags to individual Amazon GameLift EC2 fleet resources to track how your fleets are contributing to the overall hosting costs.

Learn more:

Updated SDK versions: AWS SDK 1.11.63

Amazon GameLift customers can now use the Windows Server 2016 operating system to host their game servers. This operating system is available in all AWS Regions. Customers can use the newer Windows operating system and continue to receive critical security updates as Microsoft ends its support for Windows Server 2012 in October 2023.

Starting today, new customers who require a Windows runtime environment must specify Windows Server 2016 when creating new game server builds for hosting. Existing customers can continue to create new builds and fleets with Windows Server 2012 but must complete migration with Windows Server 2016 before the Microsoft end of support date on October 10, 2023.

This update includes the following service changes:

  • When creating a game server build using Amazon GameLift SDK or CLI commands, you must now explicitly set the operating system. There is no longer a default value. To deploy your game server on Windows Server 2016, use the value WINDOWS_2016.

  • When creating a game server build using the Amazon GameLift console, you must select an operating system from the available values. If you're an existing customer with active Windows Server 2012 fleets, you can choose either WINDOWS_2012 or WINDOWS_2016.

Learn more:

Updated SDK versions: Server SDK 5.0.0 for Unreal

The latest version of the Amazon GameLift lightweight plugin for Unreal Engine is now based on the Amazon GameLift server SDK 5.x. To start integrating your Unreal Engine environment with Amazon GameLift see the following links.

Learn more:

The new Amazon GameLift console includes these improvements:

  • Improved navigation – The new navigation pane facilitates navigation between Amazon GameLift resources.

  • Amazon GameLift landing page – The new landing page provides links to helpful documentation, displays a high-level overview of Amazon GameLift, and provides support through links to documentation, frequently asked questions, and AWS re:Post.

  • Improved Amazon CloudWatch metrics – Amazon GameLift metrics are now available in both the Amazon GameLift console and your CloudWatch dashboards. This update also includes new metrics for performance, utilization, and player sessions.

Learn more:

Server Side Encryption ((SSE)) for SNS topics encrypts your sensitive data at rest. SSE uses AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) keys to protect the contents of your SNS topics.

Learn more:

Updated SDK versions: Server SDK 5.0.0 for .NET 6. No SDK updates are required.

If you use the Unity Real-Time Development Platform, continue to use the Amazon GameLift server SDK 5.0.0 with .NET 4.6. Unity doesn't support .NET 6.

Learn more:

Updated SDK versions: Server SDK 5.0.0 for Go

Learn more:

Updated SDK versions: AWS SDK 1.10.21, Server SDK 5.0.0 for C++ and C#

Amazon GameLift Anywhere uses your game server resources to host Amazon GameLift game servers. You can use Amazon GameLift Anywhere to integrate your own compute resources with Amazon GameLift managed EC2 compute to distribute your game servers across multiple compute types. You can also use Amazon GameLift Anywhere to iteratively test your game servers without uploading the build to Amazon GameLift for every iteration.

Highlights:

  • New Amazon GameLift Anywhere fleet and compute types

  • Amazon GameLift Anywhere compute resource registration

  • Improved testing iteration cycle

Amazon GameLift Server SDK 5.0.0 introduces improvements to the existing server SDK and a new resource type, compute. Server SDK 5.0.0 supports Amazon GameLift Anywhere and the use of your own compute resources for game server hosting.

Learn more:

Updated SDK versions: AWS SDK 1.9.333

Amazon GameLift is now available in eight Local Zones in the United States, so you can deploy your fleets closer to players. You can use all managed Amazon GameLift features with Local Zones by adding the Local Zones to your fleets.

Local Zones extend AWS resources and services to the edge of the cloud, near large population, industry, and information technology (IT) centers. This means that you can deploy applications that require single-digit millisecond latency closer to end users or to on-premises data centers.

Learn more:

The new Amazon GameLift console includes these improvements:

  • Improved navigation – The new navigation pane facilitates navigation between Amazon GameLift resources.

  • Amazon GameLift landing page – The new landing page provides links to helpful documentation, displays a high-level overview of Amazon GameLift, and provides support through links to documentation, frequently asked questions, and AWS re:Post.

  • Improved Amazon CloudWatch metrics – Amazon GameLift metrics are now available in both the Amazon GameLift console and your CloudWatch dashboards. This update also includes new metrics for performance, utilization, and player sessions.

Learn more:

FlexMatch users now have access to the following features:

  • Compound rule – Added support for compound matchmaking rules for matches of 40 or fewer players. You can now use logical statements to create a compound rule to form a match. Without a compound rule in your rule set, to form a match, all the rules in the rule set must be true. With compound rules, you can choose which rules to apply using the following logical operators: and, or, not, and xor.

  • Flexible team selection – Updated matchmaking property expressions to support selecting a subset of all available teams.

  • Longer string lists – Increased the maximum number of strings from 10 to 100 in a list of strings of player attribute values.

Learn more:

Updated SDK versions: AWS SDK 1.9.133

Amazon GameLift is now available in the Asia Pacific (Osaka) Region. Game developers can now deploy instances in Osaka using GameLift multi-Region fleet.

You can now use Graviton2-hosted game servers, based on the Arm-based processor architecture, to achieve increased performance at a lower cost when compared to the equivalent Intel-based compute options.

Highlights:

  • Amazon GameLift is now available in the Asia Pacific (Osaka) Region.

  • Amazon GameLift FleetIQ game server groups can now be configured to manage the Graviton2 instance families c6g, m6g, and r6g.

Learn more:

The Amazon GameLift plugin for Unity version 1.0.0 contains libraries and native UI that makes it easier to access Amazon GameLift resources and integrate Amazon GameLift into your Unity game. You can use the Amazon GameLift plugin for Unity to access Amazon GameLift APIs and deploy AWS CloudFormation templates for common gaming scenarios. The plugin also includes a sample game that works with the sample scenarios. You can use Amazon GameLift Local to see messages passed between the game client and the game server to learn how a typical game interacts with Amazon GameLift.

The plugin for Unity supports Unity 2019.4 LTS and 2020.3 LTS.

Highlights:

  • Build, run, and modify a sample game with different scenarios, or create your own.

  • Deploy sample AWS CloudFormation scenarios for typical game scenarios including auth only, single-Region fleet, multi-Region fleets with queue and custom matchmaker, Spot Fleets with queue and custom matchmaker, and FlexMatch.

Learn more:

You can use the batchDistance rule type to specify a string or numeric attribute, bringing a host of benefits to each segment.

Highlights:

  • For large matches (>40 players), instead of evenly balancing players by skill only, you can now get that same balance based on skill, modes, and maps. Ensure that everyone in the match is in a skill band, band multiple numeric attributes such as league or play style, and group according to string attributes such as map or game mode. You can also create expansions over time. For example, you can create an expansion to allow a greater skill level range to enter the match the longer the player is waiting.

    For matches under 40 players, you can use a new simplified rules expression.

Updated SDK versions: Realtime Client SDK 1.2.0, Server SDK 3.4.0 for Unreal

With this latest SDK update, you can now integrate IL2CPP into your mobile applications that use the RTS Client SDK and follow best practices with frameworks. You can also now build the Amazon GameLift Server SDK for Unreal Version 4.26. This update contains components that integrate with your Windows or Linux game server, including C++ and C# versions of the Amazon GameLift Server SDK, Amazon GameLift Local, and an Unreal Engine plugin.

Highlights:

  • Added support for IL2CPP in the RTS Client SDK and for building the native libraries as frameworks, so you can build RTS clients for the latest mobile devices.

  • You can use DescribePlayerSessions() to get information for a single player session, for all player sessions in a game session, or for all player sessions associated with a single player ID.

  • You can use GetInstanceCertificate() to retrieve the file location of a PEM-encoded TLS certificate that is associated with the fleet and its instances.

  • Created Server SDK support for Unreal version 4.26.

  • The existing C# SDK, version 4.0.2, has been verified compatible with Unity 2020.3. No SDK updates were required.

Learn more:

Updated SDK versions: AWS SDK 1.8.168

You can now use events to monitor game session placement activity for a game session queue. Create an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic to publish event notifications, or set up event tracking using CloudWatch Events.

Highlights:

  • For each queue, you can set a custom text string to be included in all event messaging.

  • When using an Amazon SNS topic, you can set additional access conditions that limit publishing to specific queues.

Learn more:

Updated SDK versions: AWS SDK 1.8.163

Amazon GameLift managed hosting is now available in 21 AWS Regions. The new Regions are Cape Town (af-south-1), Bahrain (me-south-1), Hong Kong (ap-east-1), Milan (eu-south-1), Paris (eu-west-3), and Stockholm (eu-north-1).

With the new Amazon GameLift multi-location fleets feature, you can now set up a single fleet to host your game servers in any or all of 20 Amazon GameLift-supported Regions (Beijing Region excepted). This feature aims to significantly reduce the work required to set up and maintain Amazon GameLift hosting resources globally. Multi-location fleets can be created in the following AWS Regions: us-east-1 (N. Virginia), us-west-2 (Oregon), eu-central-1 (Frankfurt), eu-west-1 (Ireland), ap-southeast-2 (Sydney), ap-northeast-1 (Tokyo), and ap-northeast-2 (Seoul). In all other Regions, you can continue to set up single-location fleets as needed. All fleets that were created before this release are single-location fleets. Using multi-location fleets does not affect your hosting costs. Amazon GameLift pricing is based on the type, location, and volume of instances that you use. (For more information, see Amazon GameLift pricing.) AWS CloudFormation support for multi-location fleets will be available soon.

Note

Multi-location fleets are not available in the China Regions. Amazon GameLift resources that reside in China Regions cannot interact with or be used by resources in other Amazon GameLift Regions.

Highlights:

  • With a multi-location fleet, explicitly add a list of remote locations. Amazon GameLift deploys instances of the same type and configuration, including the build and runtime configuration, to the fleet's home Region and all added locations.

  • Adjust capacity settings and scaling for each location independently. Auto-scaling policies apply to an entire fleet, but you can turn them on or off by location.

  • Start new game sessions at specific fleet locations. When using game session queues or matchmaking to place game sessions, you can now prioritize where new game sessions start by location, hosting cost, and player latency.

  • Get hosting metrics in the Amazon GameLift console, aggregated for all locations in a fleet or broken out by each fleet location.

Learn more:

Updated SDK versions: AWS SDK 1.8.139

This release includes the following updates:

  • Amazon GameLift FleetIQ game server groups can now be configured to manage the AMD instance families C5a, M5a, and R5a. The supported Amazon EC2 instance types, as listed for the GameServerGroup InstanceDefinition, now include the following:

    • c5a.large, c5a.xlarge, c5a.2xlarge, c5a.4xlarge, c5a.8xlarge, c5a.12xlarge, c5a.16xlarge, c5a.24xlarge

    • m5a.large, m5a.xlarge, m5a.2xlarge, m5a.4xlarge, m5a.8xlarge, m5a.12xlarge, m5a.16xlarge, m5a.24xlarge

    • r5a.large, r5a.xlarge, r5a.2xlarge, r5a.4xlarge, r5a.8xlarge, r5a.12xlarge, r5a.16xlarge, r5a.24xlarge

    Note: AMD instances for FleetIQ are currently not available for use in the China (Beijing) AWS Region. See Feature availability and implementation differences in China.

  • Amazon GameLift managed game hosting now supports AMD instances in the China (Beijing) Region, operated by Sinnet. The new AMD instance families include M5a and R5a. Supported EC2 instance types, as listed for fleet InstanceType, now include the following:

    • m5a.large, m5a.xlarge, m5a.2xlarge, m5a.4xlarge, m5a.8xlarge, m5a.12xlarge, m5a.16xlarge, m5a.24xlarge

    • r5a.large, r5a.xlarge, r5a.2xlarge, r5a.4xlarge, r5a.8xlarge, r5a.12xlarge, r5a.16xlarge, r5a.24xlarge

  • Amazon GameLift FlexMatch can now be used as a standalone matchmaking solution in the China (Beijing) Region, operated by Sinnet. Customers can create a FlexMatch matchmaker in the Beijing Region and configure the FlexMatchMode parameter to STANDALONE. For more information about FlexMatch, either with Amazon GameLift managed hosting or with a non-Amazon GameLift hosting solution, in the Amazon GameLift FlexMatch Developer Guide.

  • When setting up event notifications for Amazon GameLift FlexMatch, you can now designate an Amazon SNS FIFO topic as the notification target. For more information, see:

Updated SDK versions: Amazon GameLift Server SDK 4.0.2, Unreal plugin version 3.3.3

The latest version of the Amazon GameLift Server SDK contains the following components:

  • The updated Unreal plugin has been updated for compatibility with Unreal Engine 4.25. The API was not changed.

  • The existing C# SDK, version 4.0.2, has been verified compatible with Unity 2020. No SDK updates were required.

Download the latest version of the Amazon GameLift Server SDK at Amazon GameLift getting started.

Updated SDK versions: AWS SDK 1.8.95

Amazon GameLift FlexMatch is a customizable matchmaking service for multiplayer games. Initially designed for users of Amazon GameLift managed hosting, FlexMatch can now be integrated into games that use other hosting systems, including peer-to-peer, proprietary on-premises computing, and cloud compute primitive types. Games that use Amazon GameLift FleetIQ for game hosting on Amazon EC2 can now implement matchmaking with FlexMatch.

FlexMatch provides a robust matchmaking algorithm and rules language that gives you wide latitude to customize the matchmaking process so that players are matched together based on key player characteristics and reported latency. In addition, FlexMatch offers a matchmaking request workflow that supports features such as player parties, player acceptance, and match backfill. When you use FlexMatch with Amazon GameLift managed hosting or Realtime Servers, the matchmaker automatically uses Amazon GameLift to find hosting resources and start a new game session for newly formed matches. When using FlexMatch as a standalone service, the matchmaker delivers match results back to your game, which can then start a new game session using your hosting solution.

API operations for FlexMatch are part of the Amazon GameLift service API, which is included in the AWS SDK and the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI). This release includes these updates to support standalone matchmaking:

  • The API resource MatchmakingConfiguration has the following changes:

    • New property, FlexMatchMode indicates whether the matchmaker is being used with Amazon GameLift managed hosting or as standalone matchmaking.

    • Property GameSessionQueueArns is not required when FlexMatchMode is set to standalone.

    • These properties are not used with standalone matchmaking: AdditionalPlayerCount, BackfillMode, GameProperties, GameSessionData.

  • The automatic backfill feature is not available with standalone matchmaking.

Updated SDK versions: AWS SDK 1.8.95

The list of Amazon EC2 instance types supported by Amazon GameLift now includes three new instance families: C5a, M5a, and R5a. These families consist of AMD compute-optimized instances that are powered by AMD EPYC processors running at frequencies up to 3.3. GHz. The AMD instances are x86 compatible; games that are currently running on Amazon GameLift can be deployed to AMD instance types without alteration. The new instances are available in the following AWS Regions: US East (N. Virginia and Ohio), US West (Oregon and N. California), Central Canada (Montreal), South America (Sao Paulo), EU Central (Frankfurt), EU West (London and Ireland), Asia Pacific South (Mumbai), Asia Pacific Northeast (Seoul and Tokyo), and Asia Pacific Southeast (Singapore and Sydney).

The new AMD instances include:

  • c5a.large, c5a.xlarge, c5a.2xlarge, c5a.4xlarge, c5a.8xlarge, c5a.12xlarge, c5a.16xlarge, c5a.24xlarge

  • m5a.large, m5a.xlarge, m5a.2xlarge, m5a.4xlarge, m5a.8xlarge, m5a.12xlarge, m5a.16xlarge, m5a.24xlarge

  • r5a.large, r5a.xlarge, r5a.2xlarge, r5a.4xlarge, r5a.8xlarge, r5a.12xlarge, r5a.16xlarge, r5a.24xlarge

Learn more:

Updated SDK versions: Amazon GameLift Server SDK 4.0.2

The new Server SDK version 4.0.2 fixes a known issue with the API operation StartMatchBackfill(). This operation now returns a correct response to a match backfill request.

The issue did not affect the match backfill process, and there is no change to how this feature works. The issue may have impacted log messaging and error handling for match backfill requests.

Download the latest version of the Amazon GameLift Server SDK at Amazon GameLift getting started.

FlexMatch users can now adjust the following default behaviors for the matchmaking process. These customizations are set in a matchmaking rule set. There are no changes to the Amazon GameLift SDKs.

  • Prioritize backfill tickets: You can choose to raise or lower how match backfill tickets are prioritized when searching for acceptable matches. Prioritizing backfill tickets is useful when the auto-backfill feature is enabled. Use the algorithm property backfillPriority.

  • Pre-sort to optimize match consistency and efficiency: Configure your matchmaker to pre-sort the ticket pool before batching tickets for evaluation. By pre-sorting tickets based on key player attributes, your resulting matches tend to have players who are more similar in those attributes. You can also boost efficiency in the evaluation process by pre-sorting on the same attributes that are used in match rules. Use the algorithm property sortByAttributes with the strategy property set to "sorted".

  • Adjust how expansion wait times are triggered: Choose between triggering expansions based on the age of the newest (default) or oldest ticket in an incomplete match. Triggering on the oldest ticket tends to complete matches faster, while triggering on the newest ticket leads to higher match quality. Use the algorithm property expansionAgeSelection.

Updated SDK versions: Amazon GameLift Server SDK 4.0.1

The new Server SDK contains the following updates:

Download the latest version of the Amazon GameLift Server SDK at Amazon GameLift getting started.

Updated SDK versions: AWS SDK 1.8.36

The Amazon GameLift FleetIQ solution for low-cost, cloud-based game hosting on Amazon EC2 is now generally available. Amazon GameLift FleetIQ gives developers the ability to host game servers directly on Amazon EC2 Spot Instances by optimizing their viability for game hosting. Game developers can use Amazon GameLift FleetIQ with new games or to supplement capacity for existing games. This solution supports the use of containers or other AWS services such as AWS Shield and Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS).

This general availability release includes the following updates to the Amazon GameLift FleetIQ solution:

  • New API operation DescribeGameServerInstances returns information, including status, on all active instances for a Amazon GameLift FleetIQ game server group.

  • New balancing strategy, ON_DEMAND_ONLY, configures a game server group to use On-Demand Instances only. You can update a game server group's balancing strategy at any time, making it possible to switch between using Spot Instances and On-Demand Instances as needed.

  • The following preview elements have been dropped for general availability:

    • Use of custom sort keys for game server resources. Game servers can be sorted based on registration timestamp.

    • Tagging for game server resources.

Updated SDK versions: Amazon GameLift Server SDK 4.0.0, Amazon GameLift Local 1.0.5

The latest version of the Amazon GameLift Server SDK contains the following updated components:

  • C# SDK version 4.0.0 updated for Unity 2019.

  • Unreal plugin version 3.3.1 updated for Unreal Engine versions 4.22, 4.23, and 4.24.

  • Amazon GameLift Local version 1.0.5 updated to test integrations that use the C# server SDK version 4.0.0.

Download the latest version of the Amazon GameLift Server SDK at Amazon GameLift getting started.

Updated SDK versions: AWS SDK 1.7.310

The Amazon GameLift FleetIQ feature optimizes the viability of low-cost Spot Instances for use with game hosting. This feature is now extended for customers who want to manage their hosting resources directly rather than through the managed Amazon GameLift service. This solution supports the use of containers or other AWS services such as AWS Shield and Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS).

Learn more:

GameTech blog post on Amazon GameLift FleetIQ

Updated SDK versions: AWS SDK 1.7.249

You can now take advantage of AWS resource management tools with Amazon GameLift resources. In particular, all key Amazon GameLift resources—builds, scripts, fleets, game session queues, matchmaking configurations, and matchmaking rule sets—are now assigned Amazon Resource Name (ARN) values. A resource ARN provides a consistent identifier that is unique across all AWS Regions. They can be used to create resource-specific AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) permissions policies. Resources are now assigned an ARN and also the pre-existing resource identifier, which is not Region-specific.

In addition, Amazon GameLift resources now support tagging. You can use tags to organize resources, create IAM permissions policies to manage access to groups of resources, customize AWS cost breakdowns, etc. When managing tags for Amazon GameLift resources, use the Amazon GameLift API actions TagResource(), UntagResource(), and ListTagsForResource().

Learn more:

Updated SDK versions: AWS SDK 1.7.210

AWS CloudFormation templates for Amazon GameLift

Amazon GameLift resources can now be created and managed through AWS CloudFormation. The existing AWS CloudFormation build and fleet templates have been updated to align with the current resources, and new templates are now available for scripts, queues, matchmaking configurations, and matchmaking rule sets. AWS CloudFormation templates greatly simplify the task of managing groups of related AWS resources, particularly when deploying games across multiple Regions.

Learn more: