Thinking of games as a service is actually not a bad idea, especially when it comes to tracking certain statistics or play styles from a specific player. The difficulty comes with implementing the services required, because creating, testing and deploying an array of back-end services for games is a daunting task. Worse, it takes time away from actually creating, testing, and refining the game itself, which is something smaller developers can’t afford to do. PlayFab is looking to make life both easier and better for game publishers and developers by providing a suite of back-end services for games built on different engines and platforms .

The company recently raised $2.5 million, with a focus on what CEO James Gwertzman says are “tech companies that happen to make games.” His idea allows companies easy access to dashboards for tracking players and purchases in a more general way.

With the $2.5 million in seed funding (which was raised through a group of investors), the focus on gaming is a big one for the company, as Gwertzman has confirmed that “almost two dozen” game companies have already committed to the new model, with “hundreds” more in the discussion phase of joining.

These back-end services won’t just be limited to free-to-play games, and will serve as a live component for many gaming types. Gwertzman previously demonstrated this by taking a game that’s been a popular online favorite for three years and managing to pull up the statistics for a particular player with ease. That information can easily help out someone in need via customer support, such as tracking complaints or keeping track of comments to fix an online problem. The detailed history would back up said reports, and provide a method of research to finding a resolution.

This tool could also help out in the field of game design, with the ability to schedule special live events, like a one-day sale of the game itself or a special item. It can also track new statistics as well, such as damage dealt out during a round of a first-person shooter, or even the rate of fire that a player lets off in battle.

PlayFab would charge for this service based upon numbers of daily active users, so those up-and-coming developers would be able to take part in this service without literally paying an arm or a leg. Developers can check out PlayFab’s system now on iOS, Android, Facebook and PC, and those making games for Xbox and PlayStation consoles will be able to access the services soon as well.

Source: Recode.net, TechCrunch