Bohemia Interactive and Nitrado –
A strategic partnership provides DayZ players with exactly what they want

Data is key. Bohemia needed insight into certain metrics, such as server counts and player numbers, as well as access to key files, such as logs and save games, to monitor the success of private servers. This data can also be used to quickly and efficiently debug game breaking issues. Making the relevant data visible while adhering to data privacy regulations such as GDPR meant Nitrado needed to customize the information displayed.

DayZ is a popular game and a staple of the survival genre. Having an already growing player base, Bohemia faced the need to move thousands of players to new and better machines. An endeavour of this magnitude had to be meticulously planned and carefully executed. In general, when migrating servers or performing maintenance, the focus needs to be on the actual player experience. Interruptions are to be avoided as much as possible and it is crucially important that this process is thoroughly planned and flawlessly executed.

The Enterprise Console is a product of Nitrado and is used by Bohemia Interactive to monitor, control, configure and even back up their servers. In order to customize what data is displayed and how, Nitrado’s Enterprise Console was the ideal solution. Any data can be prefiltered to meet the regulatory requirements while Bohemia is still able to get the insights they need. The dashboard can be customized to ensure that any info is at their fingertips. To fulfill GDPR requirements, the data for private servers was aggregated per platform and per data center, to avoid the potential identification of individual server owners. The software developed for this purpose is offered to all Nitrado business customers to make their own metrics accessible from right within the Enterprise Console installations.

Nitrado’s infrastructure was ready for the demanding task of migrating all the official servers over. Nitrado’s hardware was far superior to the prior solution, for example Nitrado is part of the Intel Early Adopter Program, and therefore is able to provide the newest and best technology for the machines that Bohemia Interactive utilized. In this case, Nitrado used a CPU generation that was not even available to the market yet, which allowed them to double the performance per instance, as well as install twice the amount of instances per machine.

Nitrado’s meticulous planning ensured minimal interruptions. During the migration all goals were met and Nitrado’s expertise helped to speed up the process in itself. Important to mention is that DayZ uses the same code base for PC and consoles. Therefore the integration into Nitrado’s system was completed within just a few days.

The most important result is that DayZ became more attractive as a game due to the offer of private servers on PC and console. For the players it was not only a new feature but provided endless hours of fun in their own fully customizable world. For Bohemia Interactive this meant the player base is not only stabilized but has even increased overall significantly.

Success in numbers: Nitrado integrated DayZ as a new game in its portfolio and was able to acquire new customers (about 10,000 private servers on PS4 and Xbox with room for almost 170,000 players). Taking over 500 official servers gave Bohemia Interactive room for over 30,000 players!

Nitrado is a leading global game server hosting company with more than 20 years of experience and strong partnerships throughout the industry. It has a unique system, which administers game servers and hosted applications dynamically and automatically.

Pushing the aspects of simulation and freedom, Bohemia Interactive has built up a diverse portfolio of products, which includes the popular Arma® and Take On® series, DayZ®, and various other kinds of proprietary software. With its high-profile intellectual properties, multiple development teams across several locations, and its own motion capturing and sound recording studio, Bohemia Interactive has grown in 15 years to be a key player in the PC game entertainment industry.