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

It’s almost time! We’ll see you next week in Amsterdam! We’re excited to be hosting the EU Online Services Summit alongside our friends at i3D.net. Over 70 top engineers from leading European studios will be joining us for executive dinners on Wednesday, followed by a full day of talks, firesides, and roundtables on Thursday. Expect great conversations, good coffee, and insights from speakers at Ubisoft, ESL FACEIT, Saber, and more. 📄 See the attached agenda for more details on what’s planned. 🔗 Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eexQFf4h 👋 Let us know if you’ll be there! A special thanks to our sponsors and partners: - i3D.net - Hathora - The Multiplayer Group (MPG) - k-ID

FirstLook.gg now supports Epic Games Store playtests and key distribution, and we’re proud to be supporting Noodle Cat Games as the first studio leveraging this new feature for their upcoming title, Cloudheim. Studios can now: ► Capture Epic Account IDs during sign-up ► Upload them directly into Player Groups ► Distribute keys for a seamless player experience This works alongside FirstLook’s full feature set: NDAs, custom signup questions, surveys, Discord integration, and more. FirstLook complements Epic’s platform by handling the onboarding, key delivery, and community management—so you can focus on the playtest itself. 𝗘𝗽𝗶𝗰 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘀. Learn more or get started at firstlook.gg

We’re thrilled to be partnering up with Noodle Cat Games to power their playtests for Cloudheim through FirstLook. Cloudheim invites players to explore floating realms, hands-on gear crafting, and dive into fast-paced, physics-driven combat. We’re proud that FirstLook is helping them streamline everything from sign-ups and invites to feedback loops, community engagement, and more. These are all critical pieces for building a tight development loop early on. Check out their announcement and sign up for the waitlist 👇

Just under three weeks to go until the EU Online Services Summit kicks off! Pragma and i3D.net are hosting a first-of-its-kind gathering of 100+ engineering leaders shaping the future of online services in gaming, May 7–8th in Amsterdam. Newly released Day 2 agenda highlights (May 8th) include: • Fireside chat: competitive vs. casual online games from Maurizio Attisani, Adam Fletcher, and Adam Bamforth • Engineering sessions from Pierre Romagné and Dmitri Brevdo • Roundtables on matchmaking, anti-cheat, and backend build vs buy from Charlie Olson, Jaunius Satkauskas, and Phil Rogers • Driving online game success from Stefan Ideler • A closing happy hour and networking evening 🍻 If you’re part of Europe’s gaming engineering community, you won’t want to miss this. Find out more 👉 https://lnkd.in/eexQFf4h A special thanks to our sponsors and partners:  - i3D.net  - Hathora  - The Multiplayer Group (MPG)  - k-ID

Pragma’s Annual Hackathon! At Pragma, we don't just build tools, we put them through real-world tests in our internal title, Zenith Heroes. This past quarter, our annual hackathon brought together our team of industry veterans from studios behind hits like League of Legends, Destiny 2, and Rainbow Six Siege to tackle new features and product updates. Here's what we accomplished in just five days: 👀 FirstLook.gg x Pragma Integration: Seamlessly connects playtesting to live ops with automatic account creation, unified UI, and streamlined reward distribution, helping studios manage player journeys from first engagement to production. 🛠️ Operator Portal Enhancements: Unified dashboard with real-time tracking of player transactions and rewards from platforms like Steam and Twitch, giving studios clear insights and smoother operations. 🖥️ Expanded Studio Support: New Launch Readiness Program and enhanced customer support with direct engineer access, guiding studios smoothly from onboarding through live ops. Our five-day hackathon was all about solving real-world challenges in game development, and we're excited to put these innovations into the hands of our partners as they build the next generation of live-service games. Check out our full recap here: https://lnkd.in/eE6bkCqQ

We're excited to announce our first integration with LIVE AWARE! Live Aware empowers your players to effortlessly stream their gameplay directly to your team, automatically capturing valuable insights and feedback. This integration fits with our goals to remove friction during playtesting, making it easier and more effective for studios to gather meaningful player data. To kick off this partnership, we're introducing a simple yet powerful feature: an in-dashboard call to action prompting players to stream using Live Aware. Players who are fully onboarded will see their personal Direct Invite link, while others can use a generic, shareable link. If you're already using Live Aware and want to enable this integration on your FirstLook dashboard, reach out to us! Interested in exploring how Live Aware can enhance your playtesting experience? Connect directly with their team at developers@liveawarelabs.com. Learn more about this integration ➡️https://lnkd.in/e8Ec9J-V

Thanks for joining us at Online Services House GDC 2025! Thank you for joining us and kicking off GDC 2025 at the Online Services House! It’s always our pleasure to bring together the games online service community for a night of ping pong, connections and meaningful conversations. To continue the conversation and connections with the other Online Services professionals of engineers, product leaders, and builders, please join the Online Services Guild on Discord. A huge thank-you as well to our event partners: AWS for Games | Hathora | Unity | Rocket Science Group | LIVE AWARE | SpacetimeDB by Clockwork Labs | Overwolf | Uthana

A huge congrats to Moonshot Games and Dreamhaven on the launch of Wildgate — a PvP adventure set in the Typhon Reach with prospectors, spaceships, and some seriously slick playtester onboarding 😉 We’re proud to be powering their upcoming Community Preview playtest (April 10–14) with FirstLook! Want to level up your playtests and build stronger player communities? DM us to see how FirstLook can help. 🛸

GDC is just around the corner, and so is the Online Services House! We’re just a few days away from kicking off GDC 2025 with the Online Services House on Monday, March 17 at SPIN San Francisco – right by Moscone’s front door. If you’re already registered, we can’t wait to welcome you for an evening of great conversations, food, drinks, and ping pong with the top minds in online services. Space is limited, so please arrive early to secure your spot! 📍SPIN San Francisco, 690 Folsom St #100 📅 Monday, March 17 ⏰ 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM PT Special thanks to our partners: AWS for Games | Hathora | Unity | Rocket Science Group 🔜 GDC | LIVE AWARE | Clockwork Labs | Overwolf | Uthana See you soon! 🎉