Host migration
Host migration is the process of transferring a game session from one server (or player host) to another mid-match. It’s triggered when the original host disconnects, crashes, or becomes unreachable.
Peer-to-peer host migration
In peer-to-peer (P2P) games, one player acts as the host. If that player quits or loses connection, the game must migrate to another player. This causes a visible pause (typically 5-15 seconds), potential state desync, and sometimes a failed migration that ends the match for everyone.
P2P host migration was common in older console shooters (early Call of Duty, Halo 3). Most modern competitive games have moved to dedicated servers to avoid this problem entirely.
Dedicated server failover
With dedicated servers, “host migration” becomes server failover. If the physical machine or container running a session fails, the orchestration platform can start a new container. However, the game state from the original session is typically lost unless the game implements state checkpointing.
For session-based games with short matches (10-20 minutes), it’s usually acceptable to restart the match rather than attempt state migration. For persistent or long-session games, state persistence between server instances is a harder problem that requires application-level design.
Why dedicated servers reduce the problem
Dedicated servers run on managed infrastructure with redundant power, networking, and monitoring. Hardware failures are rare. The main cause of mid-session server loss is software crashes in the game server binary itself — which no hosting platform can prevent.