Pragma

We’re proud to announce that Pragma received a $12.75M strategic investment from Square Enix, Greylock Partners, Upfront Ventures, Insight Partners and others! At Pragma, our mission is to build best-in-class technologies for game developers so they can focus on what they do best — creating incredible games. This investment is a major milestone that enables us to keep refining our core solutions, like the Pragma engine, and help studios fully realize their vision. Furthermore, we will continue expanding our capabilities, as seen in our recent acquisition and launch of FirstLook.gg — our new playtesting and community management tool that’s now powering +30 communities/studios since launching a couple months ago. Over the last 5 years, it’s been amazing to see the adoption of Pragma and to see us transition from a 2 person startup to the de facto AA/AAA PC/Console backend. We’ve powered over 40+ studios representing thousands of game developers, millions of players and we have even more in store for 2025 and beyond. We want to thank all our partners that we worked with, especially Hide Uehara at Square Enix, Kevin Zhang of Upfront, David Thacker of Greylock, and Nikhil Sachdev of Insight. Thank you for believing in the Pragma vision and team. Together, we are paving the way forward by empowering game studios to unlock their creative potential and build amazing games. If you’re interested in learning more about how the Pragma engine, FirstLook.gg or our co-dev team can help your game, let's connect! For more, see VentureBeat's coverage. Thanks Dean Takahashi! https://lnkd.in/gfpFSi7Z

We’re proud to announce that Pragma received a $12.75M strategic investment from Square Enix, Greylock Partners, Upfront Ventures, Insight Partners and others! At Pragma, our mission is to build best-in-class technologies for game developers so they can focus on what they do best — creating incredible games. This investment is a major milestone that enables us to keep refining our core solutions, like the Pragma engine, and help studios fully realize their vision. Furthermore, we will continue expanding our capabilities, as seen in our recent acquisition and launch of FirstLook.gg — our new playtesting and community management tool that’s now powering +30 communities/studios since launching a couple months ago. Over the last 5 years, it’s been amazing to see the adoption of Pragma and to see us transition from a 2 person startup to the de facto AA/AAA PC/Console backend. We’ve powered over 40+ studios representing thousands of game developers, millions of players and we have even more in store for 2025 and beyond. We want to thank all our partners that we worked with, especially Hide Uehara at Square Enix, Kevin Zhang of Upfront, David Thacker of Greylock, and Nikhil Sachdev of Insight. Thank you for believing in the Pragma vision and team. Together, we are paving the way forward by empowering game studios to unlock their creative potential and build amazing games. If you’re interested in learning more about how the Pragma engine, FirstLook.gg or our co-dev team can help your game, let's connect! For more, see VentureBeat's coverage. Thanks Dean Takahashi! https://lnkd.in/gfpFSi7Z

Pragma engine release March 2025 is live! We’re excited to share the latest version of the Pragma engine, which introduces our new Meta Quest VR authentication integration, new matchmaking flows that enable server management improvements, and more enhancements to the Operator & Player Portals. 🥽  𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐚 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐕𝐑 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 Seamlessly integrate Meta Quest login into your VR game. This ensures consistent player tracking, reduced friction in identity management, and a smooth onboarding experience for VR players. 🔗 𝐃𝐲𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤/𝐔𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 Dynamically link/unlink game servers from player instances to reduce costs on idle servers and streamline your game flow. 🛠️ 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 & 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 New navigation and customizable portlets in the Operator Portal, and the ability for players to manage their own accounts (link or unlink providers) in the Player Portal. Full release notes here ➡ https://lnkd.in/gsq_7CVB

🚀 The European Online Services Summit coming up May 2025 – Secure Your Spot! 🚀 If you or your friends in Europe work on backend or online services for games, you won’t want to miss the European Online Services Summit on May 7-8th in Amsterdam. Hosted by Pragma and i3D.net, this event is bringing together technical leaders from across the industry to discuss the biggest challenges in online gaming—matchmaking, infrastructure, anti-cheat, player data, AI, and more. 🎤 Announcing our latest Summit Speaker 🎤 We’re excited to announce Maurizio Attisani, CTO of ESL FACEIT Group, will be joining us for a special talk alongside Adam Fletcher (former CTO of Mediatonic), diving into the future of online competition and scalable infrastructure for massive live events and games. Conference Speakers Maurizio Attisani – CTO of ESL FACEIT Group Adam Fletcher – Former CTO of Mediatonic Pierre Romagné – VP of Engineering & Platform at Ubisoft Dmitri Brevdo – Head of Game Services at Saber Interactive Find out more here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eexQFf4h A special thanks to our sponsors and partners: - i3D.net - Hathora - The Multiplayer Group (MPG) - k-ID

🚀 Pragma at GDC – Come See Us! 🚀 GDC is almost here, and we can’t wait to see everyone in SF! We’ve got a meeting space at the Hathora Hub, hosted at Sandbox VR (767 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94103)—right in the heart of the action. Whether you're deep in online services, matchmaking, game tech, or playtesting (FirstLook.gg 😉) we’d love to connect! 💡 Want to chat? Drop us an email at events@pragma.gg or DM us directly to set up a time. See you at GDC!

I was introduced to Robert van Hoesel and René Klačan by the great folks over at Frost Giant Studios, Inc. after seeing how smoothly their Steam Next Fest event went. They hadn't productized Firstlook yet, but they had the knowledge and bones to enable us to run our first public test last summer. We jumped in a Discord channel for the first two months before that test and I was surprised each day at how much progress had been made. It was clear that we made the right choice. Robert & Rene have a unique ability to ship features that are immediately useful. Over the last 10 months we've built SWAPMEAT alongside FirstLook and never looked back. FirstLook acts as a player CRM that unlocked One More Game's ability to effortlessly coordinate public play tests as part of our Alpha Driven Development methodology saving us many hours. We were able to throw away a lot of glue code that never fully delivered and would have required a focused engineering team to see across the finish line. If you're regularly testing your game throughout all stages of development (of course you are, right?) it's a no brainer. How did this not exist before?

👀 Big News from Pragma! 👀 We’re thrilled to announce that Pragma has acquired FirstLook.gg, the premier playtesting and player engagement platform! This strategic move empowers game studios to not only build and scale their games but also engage and grow their player communities like never before. FirstLook is the only platform that provides over 15 community management tools in a seamless interface, allowing developers to build and manage player communities while controlling a game’s entire playtesting lifecycle. Developers have everything they need to: ✅ Jumpstart their Discord communities ✅ Distribute game keys and onboard testers ✅ Collect feedback and manage playtests ✅ Collaborate with content creators ✅ Provide game updates and distribute in-game rewards FirstLook’s Impact So Far: 🚀 100,000+ playtesters onboarded 🎮 100+ playtest events facilitated 💬 30+ thriving Discord communities supported 🏆 Trusted by leading studios like Dreamhaven, Treehouse Games, Frost Giant Studios, and more. This is just the beginning—FirstLook will soon launch even more features, including cross-platform in-game rewards and enhanced content creator management tools. Pragma and Firstlook together are bridging game infrastructure with community engagement, giving developers the tools to not only scale their games but also build thriving player communities from day one. 📢 Be the first to experience what’s next at FirstLook and join the community here! https://firstlook.gg

🚀 Pragma x Chamo Games: Powering the Future of Competitive Arena Sports! Pragma is thrilled to announce our engine partnership with Chamo Games on their debut title, Vector Strike! ⚡ Vector Strike is an intense 4v4 arena sport where unique Strikers leverage high speed movements, abilities and physics to score and win. Every match is a test of speed, strategy, and precision. 🌐 Powered by the Pragma backend game engine, Vector Strike delivers seamless online competition with a fully integrated 4v4 multiplayer experience, complete with persistent progression, player data, and real-time telemetry. Pragma’s infrastructure enables smooth matchmaking, responsive gameplay, and deep player insights, ensuring every match feels fluid, fair, and competitive. 💡 “Pragma stands out clearly among the competition by offering a combination of managed infrastructure, good core functionality out of the box, great extensibility and source code access, as well as allowing us a high level of control over deployments and builds. The quality of the product is consistently high and enables us to build whatever we want on top of a strong foundation, saving us time and ensuring we have good solutions to some of the more difficult challenges of hosting online services. This was a perfect fit for our small team of experienced programmers.” - David Lind, Technical Director at Chamo Games 🔥 Be among the first to play! Sign up for Early Access and help shape the game’s future. Wishlist Vector Strike on Steam now! https://lnkd.in/dJhA-RY3

Attention Online Service Professionals at GDC 2025! Join the #1 community of online service professionals at the game tech gathering of GDC 2025, the Online Services House on March 17. We'll be steps from Moscone’s front door at SPIN with food, drinks, ping pong and an incredible network of industry members. We look forward to kicking-off the first night of GDC – come reconnect with old friends and meet new great people. Space is limited, so register early to secure your spot. Priority will be given to guests from game studios. Registration: https://lu.ma/z9u3ayr0 Special thanks to our Partners: AWS for Games Hathora Unity Overwolf Rocket Science Group 🔜 DICE LIVE AWARE Clockwork Labs Uthana #GDC2025 #GameTech #Networking #OnlineServices

🚀 Join Us at the Inaugural European Online Services Summit! 🚀 On May 7-8th, 2025, in Amsterdam, Pragma and i3D.net are bringing together over 100 online services engineering leaders for a first-of-its-kind summit dedicated to the future of game online services. We’re thrilled to host top engineers from Riot, Saber, Sony, Ubisoft, and leading independent studios, with featured speakers: Pierre Romagné – VP of Engineering & Platform at Ubisoft Adam Fletcher – Former CTO of Mediatonic Dmitri Brevdo – Head of Game Services at Saber Interactive Expect deep-dive discussions on topics like: 🛠️ Engineering management & hiring 🎮 Matchmaking & player data 🔄 Cross-play & anti-cheat ⚡ Infrastructure at scale Beyond the sessions, we’re creating space for networking, knowledge-sharing, great food, and more. Find out more here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eexQFf4h And a special thanks to our sponsors - i3D.net - Hathora - The Multiplayer Group (MPG) - k-ID