RallyHere is a backend service provider that helps launch live service games such as Smite 2 and ProbablyMonsters.
Larry Hear is a backend technology company that makes it easier for gaming companies to release multiplayer games. It enabled a small Atlanta-based team to create a multiplayer game titled Smite. The company is focused on live service games, an emerging category that holds great promise for rewards, but also comes with many challenges, as recent events have shown.
“In this industry, you have to be prepared to succeed and not be afraid to fail,” RallyHere president Stewart Chisam said in an interview. “It’s a tough industry. Most games struggle. But if your game blows up (in a good way), you don’t want to waste that lottery ticket. No one knows how a game is going to sell until you release it. We’re risk averse.”
It’s a games category full of opportunity and danger: Live service games like Smite have been around for years, while Sony’s recently released Concord was expected to be a live service game for years, but failed in the market and was canceled just 12 days after launch. Probably a monster‘s former division (sold to Sony), Firewalk Studios, produced the Concord game in hopes that it would last for years. That didn’t happen, but ProbablyMonsters has more games in the works and has raised $250 million.
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In an interview at Devcom, a game developer event held in Germany, Chisum said RallyHere’s job is to ease the burden on game developers by handling back-end service tasks so they can focus on their games. Hi-Rez Studios created the RallyHere division to provide technology to other game companies. The goal is to relieve game developers of mundane but important tasks they don’t have to do, so they can focus on making great games, Chisum said.
“We have the plumbing and infrastructure in place for these games. It’s not necessarily the plumbing that sets the game apart, it’s the game itself. The game only sets itself apart if the plumbing is bad. Strengthening the plumbing is our strength,” Chisum said.
Chisum said Larryhere played a key role in supporting the parent company. Smite 2 Development is currently progressing as we approach release, similar to how Epic Games uses its game Fortnite to learn about development challenges and refine its Unreal game engine to address those challenges — it’s basically eating its own dog food.
“Smite 2 is going to be interesting. It’s an interesting challenge to make a sequel to a live service game, but we’re very excited about it. It’s great for RallyHere to provide the technical side of things, and of course, they’re partnering with Hi-Rez Studios, who are making Smite 2. It’s a good synergy for both parties to learn a lot of interesting things,” Chisam said.
RallyHere is also accelerating development of new titles from its Battle Barge and Hidden Grove teams.
origin
Atlanta-based Hi-Rez Studios announced RallyHere in February 2023, and its goal for the first year or so was to find some early customers to work with. That plan worked: RallyHere now has 40 staff members.
Chisum believes the lessons learned developing the Smite titles will be useful to other game companies, combining a back-end solution with a dedicated engineering support team.
The success and longevity of live service games.
“A live service game like Smite 2 is incredibly complex,” Chisam said in his Devcom talk. “You’re not just managing the game, you’re managing an entire ecosystem of players, sessions, servers and data. That’s where our platform helps.”
This kind of story is repeated from many other gaming backend solutions companies, such as Playfab, which was acquired by Microsoft.
Chisum said the company works with live service game makers before launch to help them manage their live services, and many customers also need help during the prototyping phase. Live service games require a lot of operations as they progress through development, and the RallyHere team has enough veterans who can help companies set up things like community management and support.
“From our perspective, a company like RallyHere can only be successful if its customers are successful, so getting the other operational pieces in place is really important. And then over time, we think you’ll start to see where there are opportunities to further automate some of that and integrate it into your software tools,” he said.
Four main platform components
Chisum highlighted four key components of the RallyHere platform:
A challenge facing every multi-platform, cross-progression live service game developer.
He said his first focus will be player management.
“At the heart of any great game is a strong connection with the player,” says Chisum. From handling login, linking accounts, and managing player inventory and progression, the goal is to keep players immersed and having fun in the game. It’s all about giving developers the tools they need to attract and retain players over the long term.
He went on to mention that the next component would be session and server orchestration. Chisam then introduced Gameflow, explaining, “This is our comprehensive solution that covers session management, matchmaking, and fleet commander. Together, these form a powerful system that ensures that players are effectively grouped together and sessions are hosted on the optimal servers. This combination balances performance and cost to ensure that players have the best possible experience, no matter where they are.”
RallyHere also has a strong focus on publishing and LiveOps.
“It’s not enough to just release a game,” Chisum continues, “you need to keep it fresh and engaging. That’s where our Publishing & LiveOps tools come in. These tools help developers manage everything from in-game purchases to rolling out new content and events. And our Developer Portal enables game development teams to quickly adapt and respond to what’s happening in their game, so they can keep their community vibrant and the experience fresh.”
And finally, RallyHere is focused on data and analytics, with Chisam explaining the importance of data in making informed decisions about the future of the game.
“Our data and analytics tools give developers deep insight into what’s going on in their game. This isn’t just about tracking KPIs – it’s about understanding player behavior, seeing what’s working and what’s not, and making the right decisions to improve your game. Whether it’s tweaking gameplay mechanics or identifying the best time to release new content, the data we provide helps developers make smarter decisions and improve the experience for their players.”
Shared Vision: RallyHere and ProbablyMonsters Collaboration
RallyHere’s platform not only powers Smite 2, it also powers the work of ProbablyMonsters.
An independent video game company known for its innovative approach to development, ProbablyMonsters has raised over $250 million to date.
The partnership with RallHere is built on the same technology foundation that powers Smite 2,
Comprehensive live service operations for ProbablyMonsters’ upcoming titles.
Mark Subotnick, senior vice president of partnerships at ProbablyMonsters, said in a statement that LarryHere’s track record and deep understanding of game development were key factors in the decision to partner.
“RallyHere is not just a service provider,” says Subotnick, “they are also game developers and have a deep understanding of what we’re trying to accomplish and how to get there.”
Subotnick highlighted the benefits of working with RallyHere, especially the ease of some of the operational headaches that come with game development. “Having a trusted partner like RallyHere allows us to focus on the game itself, knowing that our back-end needs are being expertly managed,” he added. This close collaboration has enabled ProbablyMonsters to accelerate its development process and move quickly from testing to playtest environments with the support of RallyHere.
RallyHere’s growing influence in live service gaming
The successful alpha release of Smite 2 and our ongoing partnership with ProbablyMonsters highlight RallyHere’s growing influence in the live service gaming space. The platform’s ability to support large-scale games and deep integration with developers has established RallyHere as one of the leaders in gaming backend services.
As Chisum noted at Devcom, the real work begins after the game launches. RallyHere’s collaboration with ProbablyMonsters demonstrates the mutual benefits of a well-aligned partnership, with both companies working together to bring new games to market with increased speed and success. Chisum said the partnership will lay the foundation for future collaborations that continue to shape the landscape of live service games.
As Activision pointed out with Call of Duty, skill-based matchmaking is difficult because game makers must strike a balance between getting players into matches quickly and putting the right mix of skilled players into matches to make the game close.
“It’s better to wait a few minutes than have a bad game,” he said. “When you have a smaller player population, it makes it even harder.”
Typically, game companies don’t know how much load their game can withstand until they have a lot of players on board. They can test with hundreds or even thousands of layers, but when it’s time to release, there could be a million or more players ready to play the game. And they don’t want to wait.
Looking to the future
RallyHere has partnered with ProbablyMonsters on some games. Looking ahead to 2025, Chisam says, “We want to ramp up our sales and marketing even more and start working to get more customers.”
The technology and operations are stable, he says. Now, customers with multiple games, like ProbablyMonsters, can ship them on a common platform, resulting in common operations for publishing, marketing, community and support teams, and common data collection for key metrics.
“This is really becoming a focus. We’re also working with another type of multi-game publisher that we haven’t announced yet,” he said.
One challenge is getting players in and out of a match with a smooth game flow, which is a complex task to coordinate well, he said. There are multiple vendors in this space.
“What we’re able to do is have one API that developers can develop against, and we work with all of these vendors, as well as the big cloud vendors like Azure, and we orchestrate this on behalf of our customers so they’re not locked into any one of these vendors,” Chisam says. “If there’s an issue with one of the vendors, we can seamlessly reallocate it to another vendor on the back end.”
As for pricing, Chisum said the company’s prices are close to the enterprise subscription prices of other competitors in the market, and said RallyHere’s support for Smite 2 is good evidence of that. The RallyHere team has grown to about 40 people. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hi-Rez.
Referring to this year’s big hits Helldivers 2 and Palworld, Chisam said that with games as successful as those, RallyHere could help companies pivot more quickly and gain more advantage, thanks to server orchestration and cross-platform work.
Disclosure: Devcom covered my travel expenses to Germany, and I moderated several panels there.
