Unity Multiplay Has Shut Down. Here's Where Studios Are Going.

Multiplay shut down March 31, 2026. Rocket Science has migrated a handful of studios. Most are still looking for a path forward.

Andrew Walker
Head of Business Development at Gameye

· Last updated

By Andrew Walker, Head of Business Development at Gameye · · Updated

Unity Multiplay Game Server Hosting shut down on March 31, 2026. The software has been licensed to Rocket Science Group, but the transition has left many studios in limbo — the deadline has passed and a significant number of developers are still without a new provider in place.

This post covers where things stand now, what the realistic options look like, and what migration actually involves.

What’s still running

Only the dedicated server hosting layer shut down. Unity Matchmaker, Relay, Lobby, Distributed Authority, and Netcode for GameObjects are all unaffected and continue to work with third-party hosting providers. Your matchmaking rules, player grouping, and ticket logic don’t need to change — only where your servers run.

Where studios are going

Three paths are seeing the most traction right now.

Rocket Science Group

Rocket Science was founded by the original Multiplay engineering team and licensed the software from Unity. Their pitch is continuity: the underlying platform is the same codebase Multiplay ran on. For studios that completed the handoff before the deadline, nothing changed.

In practice, Rocket Science has migrated a small number of studios so far. Pricing hasn’t been published. Studios choosing this path are trading Unity dependency for a new vendor relationship with a smaller company. If you’re still in queue, it’s worth having a parallel option ready.

Edgegap

Edgegap has a dedicated Unity plugin and a documented migration path from Multiplay. Self-serve onboarding, 615+ edge locations, pay-per-second pricing. If your team is already comfortable in the Unity editor toolchain, this path has the shortest ramp. Their SDK is optional — see how Gameye compares to Edgegap.

Gameye

Gameye is a dedicated server orchestration platform — in production since 2017, 120M+ sessions orchestrated. API-driven: a single HTTP call starts a session, and Unity Matchmaker routes to it.

The key difference from the other options: Gameye requires no SDK in your game server binary. You remove the Multiplay SDK (IMultiplayService, MultiplayEventCallbacks, ReadyServerForPlayersAsync) and don’t replace it with anything. Your server just starts, listens on its port, and accepts connections.

What migration actually involves

The technical scope is smaller than it feels right now. Your authoritative game server code, networking stack, Unity Matchmaker configuration, Relay, and Lobby integrations are untouched.

What changes:

  1. Remove the Multiplay SDK — strip IMultiplayService, MultiplayEventCallbacks, and ReadyServerForPlayersAsync from your server build. With Gameye, there’s no replacement SDK
  2. Containerise your server — if it’s not already in a Docker container, that’s the main new step. Unity’s Dedicated Server build target produces the binary; Docker wraps it
  3. Replace the allocation call — wherever your backend called Multiplay’s fleet API, replace it with POST /session to Gameye. The response returns host IP and port immediately
  4. Configure in the Admin Panel — set your image, ports, regions, and webhook

Studios have completed this in under two weeks with parallel testing. Step-by-step migration checklist.

Full comparison

For a detailed breakdown of how Gameye compares to the other options — including feature-by-feature tables, pricing, and infrastructure — see:

Sandbox access in 24 hours. No sales call required. Request your Gameye API key.

Frequently asked questions

When did Unity Multiplay shut down? Unity Multiplay Game Server Hosting shut down on March 31, 2026. Unity licensed the software to Rocket Science Group. Unity Matchmaker, Relay, Lobby, and Distributed Authority continue to work with third-party providers.

Do I need to change my Unity Matchmaker configuration? No. Unity updated Matchmaker to support third-party hosting providers before the shutdown. Your matchmaking rules, player grouping, and ticket logic stay unchanged — only the server allocation backend changes.

Does Gameye require an SDK in my Unity game server? No. Gameye requires no SDK in your game server binary. Remove the Multiplay SDK (IMultiplayService, MultiplayEventCallbacks, ReadyServerForPlayersAsync) and don’t replace it. Your server starts, listens on its port, and accepts connections.

How long does migration from Multiplay to Gameye take? Studios have completed migrations in under two weeks with parallel testing. Gameye provisions sandbox access within 24 hours. See the step-by-step checklist.