20 years of GPORTAL: Gameserver Hosting from the past until today

Early beginnings through LAN parties

At the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, the topic of gaming became really popular, and the LAN parties, which were very well-known at that time and are still popular among the old-timers, were the main contributors to this. LAN parties live from the fact that either a few friends get together or even whole halls are filled and the players can connect their computers in a local network and then gamble together - effectively the beginnings of online multiplayer gaming.

Then in the early 2000s, after the Internet finally became more widespread and available to more and more people, online multiplayer games became increasingly popular, because for the first time you could really play together with friends who were not sitting next to you at home, you could call it a great revolution of gaming, because nothing else was this step.

Rise and development of game server hosting

The peak of LAN parties and the widespread use of online multiplayer games such as Counter-Strike Source and 1.6 or other games like Unreal Tournament, HALO, Medal of Honor or Call of Duty led to the first game server hosts starting up, including of course GPORTAL for over 20 years. With the increasing popularity of the games, the first demands from the players and customers were also mentioned, among them of course stable game servers, so that the game sessions run smoothly and are not affected by lags or other disturbances.

GPORTAL played a major and supporting role in the game server hosting development from the very beginning, as even then it was quickly recognized what was important for the players and since then offered optimized server solutions so that everyone who wanted to could finally enjoy online gaming with friends. Success did not take long to come and GPORTAL quickly became one of the leading providers in the field of game server hosting.

Advances in hosting and cloud technology

The advancement of game server hosting was insanely fast around the 2010s and new things were always important and of course more and more people chose the path to hosting providers. GPORTAL, for example, developed its own system with a website, store system and a wide range of products. Since then, especially for newbies and gamers who were less familiar with the technology behind game servers, it was easy to create their own servers with their favorite game and customize them according to their wishes in the administration panel.

The next big milestone was the introduction of cloud technology, which made it possible to significantly improve the performance of game servers and, most importantly, reach the global market outside of Germany. GPORTAL also expanded their locations and was able to deploy more and more servers outside of Germany so that international gamers could enjoy low latency and full gaming experience together with their friends.

Game server hosting in the eSport and streaming area

Early on, there were the first tournaments and entire events with filled halls, covering the now very well-known eSports sector. Popular games here are mainly shooters, battle royales or other genres. The games include the most popular titles such as: League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Fortnite, Dota 2 or Playerunknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG). The increasing popularity of eSports naturally posed challenges to servers that were very large in scale, because such events with real tournaments, which also involve not exactly small sums of money as prizes, could not be set up easily.

Also in the streaming area, there have been more and more events in recent years that have taken place and are still taking place. Be it building contests in Minecraft, Minecraft events, Battle Royale events with games like PUBG or streamer events and tournaments in which mainly shooters like Fortnite or Counter-Strike are played. Even though these events naturally bring together smaller groups of players than the large-scale tournaments sponsored by all kinds of organizers and companies, stable and high-performance servers must also be provided for them.

More than just shooters

In the beginning, game servers were popular for players who liked to play shooters and wanted to play several rounds of Counter-Strike with their friends, for example. In the meantime, however, it has become established that not only the shooter genre is covered by game servers; nowadays, survival games such as ARK: Survival Evolved or Conan Exiles are also very popular. The diversity of the game servers reflects that the interests are no longer limited to shooters, but also a relaxed round of Farming Simulator is played together with friends.

The future of game server hosting

If you dare to look into the future, you can probably assume that there will be some changes and improvements in the area of game server hosting. With the integration of additional technologies, even better performance and greater flexibility can be guaranteed. Server hosters will experience higher demands especially in the area of virtual reality and augmented reality, because in order to be able to process these immersive experiences technically well, data processing and transmission must run even more smoothly and quickly, so that the gaming experience is also as engaging as it should be in the world of VR and AR.

The introduction of 5G technology will also play an even bigger role, as latency can be reduced, improving the responsiveness of players in online games. This means that even more demanding and intense games can be played by customers without having to fear a drop in the quality of gameplay. All in all, it can be said that game servers and servers in general will be made much more flexible and adaptable in the future, so that manufacturers and developers in particular can respond to requirements and demands as quickly as possible in order to offer players a continuously excellent gaming experience.