Plans & Pricing

Frequently Asked Questions about our Pricing

What is your billing period?

United States calendar months (January, February, March, etc.). More specifically, 00:00 on the 1^st of each month to 23:59:59.99 inclusive on the last day of that month, always in Pacific Time (Standard or Daylight Savings, as specified by the US for that month).

What happens if I go over the usage limit for my tier?

We don’t shut off or throttle your service and we don’t send error messages to your players or to your game client. Instead, you will simply be charged for the appropriate usage tier based on your game’s monthly usage for that month (see above).

What happens if I fall under the usage limit for my tier?

Just like increases in usage, when your usage falls below the minimum threshold for a tier, your monthly bill will automatically be lowered to the tier appropriate for that month’s usage (see above).

So, do I sign up for a particular tier?

No. When you create a game with us, that game automatically starts in the Polycarbonate (Free) tier. As your game grows in popularity and usage, our services and your game’s usage tier automatically scale up with your game’s success. And once your game has become less popular, billing will automatically decrease commensurate with your game’s lower usage tier (see above).

What about ‘Unobtainium’?

Unobtainium is a little different. If you’re a major label publisher or studio and you know in advance you will likely need traffic beyond what’s shown for Gold, please contact one of our Account Managers to get set up with Unobtainium, since that may require dedicated hardware, load-balancing and other premium GameSpy features.

However, if you’re an indie who hits an unexpected home run and crosses above Gold, don’t worry — we’ll contact you! (And we think you’ll find Unobtainium pretty affordable for the level of traffic and service it offers.)

I don’t see console platforms listed on the game-creation page; how do I get started with GameSpy for my console game?

Consoles generally impose some additional considerations on developing and releasing game titles, such as coordination or agreements with the console provider, obtaining and integrating console SDKs, and satisfying console TRCs (Technical Requirements Checklists) before release. As such, while we have supported major consoles for years, we ask that you contact a GameSpy Account Manager before embarking beginning GameSpy integration for your console title. This doesn’t necessarily mean you will need an Unobtainium license.

What if I want my multiplatform game to share matchmaking or cloud storage or another GameSpy service?

By default when you complete our game-creation page, we create a separate set of GameSpy game identifiers (gameid, game name, access key, etc.) for each platform that you checked. Specifying these identifiers in your GameSpy calls will segment and isolate each of your platform’s matchmaking, storage, and other GameSpy services from one another.

If, however, you want two or more of your platform builds to share their GameSpy services, you can simply use the same GameSpy game identifiers for both builds. It is not possible at this time to share some GameSpy services between two games but not others. For example, it’s not possible to have the PC and Mac builds of your game share their matchmaking but not share their Cloud Storage.

Note that having two or more builds of your game share GameSpy identifiers means that they will also share usage and will be billed in aggregate under the game identifier they share.

How do I receive my monthly bill?

A GameSpy Account Manager may contact the email address of the owner of a GameSpy game after the end of the month about their monthly bill. If that email address is unresponsive or invalid, GameSpy reserves the right to revoke service for any games with outstanding unpaid bills owned by that email address.

Alternately, your monthly bill may be emailed to the email address for the owner of that GameSpy game.

We already show some of your usage metrics at the GameSpy dashboard for your game. And we’re working on more dashboard features that will help you see more detailed usage for each of your games before receiving your monthly bill.

How come I haven’t received a bill yet?

Coming Soon! We’re still implementing an automated billing feature, but we didn’t want that to get in the way of making all of this excellent stuff available to you.

What happens if I don’t pay my monthly bill?

If your game’s monthly usage falls above the Polycarbonate tier, you are expected to pay your monthly bills. By agreeing to the GameSpy Terms of Service you have agreed to pay your monthly bills. Failure to pay monthly bills will result in termination of GameSpy services.

How do I sign-up for Polycarbonate?

When you complete our game-creation page, that game automatically starts in the Polycarbonate (Free) tier. As your game grows in popularity and usage, our services and your game’s usage tier automatically scale up with your game’s success. And once your game has become less popular, our billing will automatically lower commensurate with your game’s decreased usage.

I’m a major label publisher or studio or probably need Unobtanium, how do I sign-up?

Just contact one of our Account Managers.

How do I terminate service for my game?

By default, the email address and account that creates a GameSpy game owns that game’s GameSpy services. To discuss or change service for a game, simply have the account that created the game post in our forums and we’ll get in touch with you.

How do I change the account that ‘owns’ my game?

By default, the email address and account that creates a GameSpy game owns (and is expected to pay for) that game’s GameSpy services. To change a game’s owner, simply have the account that created the game post in our forums about changing ownership and we’ll get in touch with you. If the original owner of a game has become unavailable and you can demonstrate ownership of that game, post in our forums and we’ll help get to the bottom of the issue.