Photon Engine

Photon is ready to support GodotFest 2026 as a sponsor and to help bring MeetToMatch to the event, the de facto matchmaking and networking tool used at major game industry events. With our participation we’re supporting a space where Godot Engine developers, studios, publishers, tool makers, and industry partners can meet, exchange ideas, and build new connections. For us, this fits directly with what Photon stands for: We Make Multiplayer Simple. Multiplayer is one of the hardest problems in game development. Photon exists to remove barriers, reduce complexity, and help developers focus on what matters most: building great games and real-time experiences. With Photon Fusion for Godot, we want to help make real-time multiplayer more accessible to Godot developers, without forcing teams to become infrastructure companies. Christof Wegmann, CEO/CTO at Photon: “We’re convinced Godot will become an equal contender to Unity and Unreal in the coming years. It’s already an important engine for a fast-growing community of creators, and we want to support that ecosystem as it scales.” Photon is built by developers, for developers. Product comes first. Community matters. And our goal is simple: help more teams move from idea to playable, connected experience. We’re looking forward to meeting the Godot community at GodotFest 2026. See you there.

We’ll be at AWE 2026 next week with a new XR sample we’ve been working on. At booth 938, we will show our latest XR sample, Spatial Starter: a multiplayer sample that streams video from smart glasses into shared Virtual and Mixed Reality environments. The idea is simple: make it easier to connect people, devices and live context inside spatial experiences. For teams building XR applications, that means real-time synchronization of objects, input, voice, video and presence across devices such as Meta Quest, Pico and Apple Vision Pro, without having to build the entire networking layer from scratch. Dirk Figge and Arne Wiehe will be on site to show the sample, talk through the setup and discuss what this could make possible for collaborative XR, remote support, training, events and shared spatial tools. The sample will be released in the coming weeks and will be available exclusively to Photon Circle members. Come by booth 938 and take a look. #AWE2026 #XR #MixedReality #VirtualReality #SmartGlasses

Join Michael Jones, Mark Val and Christof Wegmann next week at 𝐔𝐧𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐅𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐠𝐨. We’ll be on the show floor with new Photon Fusion for Unreal samples, live demos, and plenty of technical questions to answer. Stop by our booth, bring us your toughest multiplayer problem, and see how simple building multiplayer in Unreal can now be. Epic Games Unreal Engine #gamedevs #multiplayer

This month’s Photon newsletter looks at real-time multiplayer across games, XR, and technical implementation. Inside: a developer story on Roadside Research and physics-driven co-op with Photon Fusion, new learning content on animation sync and Inputs vs. Commands, XR case studies from Fundamental XR and Epiroc/Flowtropolis, plus we will be attending AWE 2026 so get in contact with us if you like to meet up. Check out the latest issue now.

How do you launch a massive underground mining machine when nobody can see it in person? Just like this: https://lnkd.in/euj6A2cd For Epiroc, that challenge became the starting point for something much bigger. Together with Flowtropolis, they turned a virtual product launch into a scalable XR platform for training, collaboration, product development, and customer engagement. What began as a practical workaround soon became a long-term capability: teams could meet inside the same digital environment, explore complex machinery, inspect details that are hard to access physically, and collaborate across locations and devices. With Photon powering the real-time multi-user layer, those shared XR sessions stay synchronized across VR, desktop, and web. This story shows where XR creates its greatest value: not as a one-off demo, but as a reusable platform that grows with the business. Swipe through the carousel to see how Epiroc moved from one virtual launch to enterprise-wide XR capability. Big thanks to Ylva Hansdotter and Robert Södergren for sharing this story with us. 🍻 #XR #VirtualReality #IndustrialXR #EnterpriseXR #PhotonEngine

A cozy open-world adventure, a home on wheels, and online co-op built with Photon Fusion. Outbound by Square Glade Games is now available, inviting players to explore, craft, customize their camper van, build sustainably, and head out into a colorful world together. We always enjoy seeing how developers use Photon to bring different kinds of multiplayer experiences to life, from competitive action to relaxed co-op exploration. Outbound is a great example of multiplayer supporting the experience without getting in the way of the game’s mood and pacing. Congratulations to the team at Square Glade Games on the release. Try Outbound yourself and start your own off-grid road trip.

New Unity sample available: Sports Arena Brawler for Photon Quantum -> https://lnkd.in/dCYHiJZy This one is for teams building fast, competitive multiplayer games where movement, possession, timing, and readability all matter. Sports Arena Brawler is a top-down 3v3 arena sports brawler built with Photon Quantum. Teams fight for ball possession, carry it into the opponent’s zone, and score by coordinating movement, passes, support play, and close-range combat. From a technical perspective, it is also a useful reference for teams working with deterministic multiplayer, state-dependent character behaviour, ability systems, multiple local players, and responsive action under network conditions. The goal is not just to provide a playable sample, but a practical foundation developers can inspect, reuse, and adapt for their own competitive action games. #PhotonQuantum #Unity3D #GameDev #Multiplayer #IndieGameDev #GameNetworking #OnlineMultiplayer

Read into our new Dev Story about Roadside Research, made with Photon Fusion: https://lnkd.in/eFqeznBW The game is releasing its latest update today, adding an Alien Room, new alien tech, storage upgrades, and even more ways to create multiplayer chaos inside a roadside gas station. At the same time, we're publishing a deep dive with Cybernetic Walrus on how the game’s multiplayer systems were actually built. The interesting part is how practical the approach was throughout development. The team focused on making multiplayer feel good to play instead of overcomplicating systems they didn’t need yet. From physics replication and AI handling to bandwidth usage and topology decisions. Big thanks to Mike Coeck, Ami Kucharek and the team at Cybernetic Walrus for the trust in our tech and the time to share their valuable insights. 🍻

A big thank you to Unity for hosting us on the recent livestream about multiplayer development. Photon was represented by our own Mark Val and Luke Stampfli, who joined Unity’s Joy Horvath and Sarah A. to discuss a key question for many game developers: Can multiplayer be easy? During the stream, we covered how Photon helps Unity teams build and scale real-time multiplayer games without having to solve every networking and infrastructure challenge from scratch. Topics included: ➡️ Choosing the right multiplayer architecture early ➡️ Getting started quickly with Photon Fusion and Unity samples ➡️ Building responsive state-synchronized gameplay ➡️ Using Photon Quantum for deterministic multiplayer and predict/rollback ➡️ Supporting multiplayer across PC, mobile, VR, WebGL, and other platforms ➡️ The role of voice and social interaction in modern multiplayer games A highlight was seeing the Photon samples in action directly inside Unity, including Fusion starter projects, shooter examples, projectile systems, and a live browser-based Quantum Sports Arena session. Thanks again to Unity for the invitation and to everyone who joined, watched, and asked questions. Watch the full livestream here: https://lnkd.in/dXEZChgw #Unity #PhotonEngine #PhotonFusion #PhotonQuantum #GameDevelopment #Multiplayer #Unity3D

Roadside Research, made with Photon Fusion, is getting another update on May 19th, which means players will soon be spending even more time doing perfectly normal things in the back room of a gas station while definitely not being aliens. The update adds a new Alien Room, more alien tech, a Data Analyzer minigame, storage upgrades, and a few other things that probably shouldn’t exist but somehow make complete sense in this game. Coincidentally, May 19th is also when we’re publishing our Developer Story with Cybernetic Walrus about how the game’s multiplayer chaos actually works behind the scenes. It’s a surprisingly grounded story about networking architecture, physics replication, AI authority, bandwidth constraints, and making four-player co-op feel smooth without overengineering everything. If you’ve ever wondered what it actually takes to make multiplayer chaos feel smooth, this one’s worth the read. Until then, you can check out the game on Steam right here: https://lnkd.in/eNg-T4-6 #gamedev #multiplayer #unity3d #indiedev #gamedevelopment #photonengine