DACS Laboratories unveils ROCKITPLAY, promising near-instantaneous access to games as they download

DACSLABS has announced the successful scalability test of its cloud-based platform ROCKITPLAY. During the test, players were able to start playing THQ Nordic’s Gothic Playable Teaser after a small fraction of the game downloaded, while the rest of the download continued in the background.

ROCKITPLAY is the first-ever cloud engine to provide nearly instant access and local play for downloadable software and cloud gaming markets. Through its FastStart feature, games are available to be played from as little as 1% downloaded, making it much faster than a full download and requiring no game code changes. ROCKITPLAY promises that game stores will be able to differentiate themselves by making their game libraries available to play almost instantaneously. Additionally, ROCKITPLAY can help free to play publishers by eliminating download dropouts, driving revenues and lowering the average user acquisition cost.

In collaboration with THQ Nordic and the playtesting platform Antidote, over 1000 users recently tested games accelerated by ROCKITPLAY FastStart.

“Antidote helped us to evaluate our breakthrough technology that brings an end to frustrating download waiting times,” said Frank Schwarz, CEO of DACSLABS. “Antidote shined as a platform not just for games, but also for evaluating core game technology, in our case, the delivery of ROCKITPLAY FastStart powered games.”

According to Antidote’s post-experience user survey, over 90% of those surveyed were very satisfied with ROCKITPLAY FastStart and would like to see a feature like FastStart implemented in their favorite game store. Additionally, 76% said they would rather buy a game with FastStart implemented than the same game without it. 77% said they would try more games if they were available with FastStart.

“Antidote has proven that community feedback can provide valuable input for emerging game titles,” said Aleix Canals, CEO of Sekg. “Emerging technologies like ROCKITPLAY in combination with Antidote create exciting opportunities to lower friction-to-play for game evaluation on Antidote and ultimately game distribution.”