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Every piece we have published: field notes, host opinions, and premiere coverage on dedicated game servers and server preservation.
Star Wars Galaxies Is Still Online Because the Players Became the Server
Sony switched off Star Wars Galaxies in 2011. It is still playable in 2026 because the community reverse-engineered the server and ran it themselves. A field note on community-run servers as the real preservation mechanism.
Racing Games Keep Killing Their Own Servers, and Nobody Is Coming to Save Them
GRID, NFS Rivals, a shelf of DiRT titles, The Crew. The racing genre is the clearest case of the no-dedicated-server preservation gap: the online was always publisher-run, so when the switch flips there is nothing left to self-host.
The Hero-Shooter Server Graveyard: Why Most Die Before Year Two
Hero shooters ship publisher-server-only with no dedicated-server tool, so when the player count dips below matchmaking viability the publisher pulls the plug and the whole game becomes unplayable. Why fun is not the survival metric.
Dedicated Box, VPS, or Cloud for a Game Server in 2026: The Honest Decision Tree
A practical, opinionated decision framework for picking a dedicated box, a VPS, or hourly cloud for a game server in 2026. Why single-thread CPU, tick stability, and persistent state decide it, and the traps in each tier.
Lobbies Are Getting Bigger: What a 200-Player Co-Op Game Actually Costs to Host
Co-op lobby caps are climbing from 4-to-8 toward 32, 64, and 200 players, but hosting cost does not scale linearly. Why a 200-player server is far more than 25x an 8-player one, and how to read a max-player count as a cost signal.
StarRupture Shipped a Dedicated Server, Then Made You Fight It
Creepy Jar did the thing most co-op launches refuse to: it shipped a first-party dedicated server. It also shipped it janky, Windows only, with an idle-state dance the tool never explains. Why the patch cadence, not the launch state, is the number to watch.
Romestead Shipped a Real Dedicated Server on Day One, and That Is the Whole Story
While Subnautica 2 and Solarpunk launched peer-to-peer with servers as a maybe-later, this Roman survival sandbox shipped a first-party dedicated server on launch day. Why that, not the player peak, is the number self-hosters should watch.
The June 2026 Server Outlook: Roadmaps, a P2P Gamble, and the Spikes Already Cooling
Subnautica 2 promises dedicated servers while a fan already shipped one. Solarpunk launches peer-to-peer with no crossplay. Satisfactory 1.2 nears stable. And the Conan Enhanced spike is already cooling. A forward read for self-hosters.
Path of Exile 2 2026 Roadmap: League Cycle, 1.0 Release Window, and What GGG Still Owes
Patch 0.5.0 Return of the Ancients on May 29 is the final Early Access league. ExileCon is November. The promise-vs-delivery scoreboard, the realistic 1.0 window, and the Tencent dimension nobody factors into the cadence math.
Arc Raiders Shrouded Sky: Every Quest, Cache Location, and Map Condition
The Shrouded Sky patch reworked the quest board and scattered new caches across shifting map conditions. A full rundown of every quest objective, where the caches sit, and how the new sky states change each raid.
Marvel Rivals 2026 Roadmap: Season 8, NetEase's Cadence, and the Things They Stopped Promising
Season 8 runs May 15 to July 17 with 50 heroes shipped, an 82% drop from launch peak, and a Path to Doomsday calendar through December 18. What NetEase has delivered, what they have quietly stopped promising, and where the rest of 2026 lands.
The Crew Lawsuit Is Becoming the Server-Preservation Test Case of 2026
Cassell v. Ubisoft in Sacramento, a French consumer-rights suit in Paris, and a California gift-card-law argument that could reframe every in-game currency on the market. The legal landscape of server preservation in 2026.
Star Citizen 2026 Roadmap: 4.9 On Hold, 1.0 Still Vapor
Alpha 4.8 went live May 14 with three connected star systems and 500-player meshing. 4.9 roadmap slipped. 1.0 is structurally beyond 2027. A realist's map of what is actually coming.
Stop Killing Games Is Winning in Brussels: 1.29M Signatures, Zero MEPs Against, and a June 16 Reckoning
The European Citizens' Initiative cleared validation with 1,294,188 signatures, the Parliament debate had no MEPs speaking against, and the Commission must respond by June 16. What is actually on the table and what regulated server preservation looks like.
The GTA 6 Pre-Order That Wasn't: 18 Months of Hype, Zero Open Pre-Orders
Five months from launch, the biggest game in history still has no open pre-orders. Take-Two's CEO says he has "absolutely no idea" when they open. Why Rockstar's silence is a deliberate strategy, not dysfunction.
007 First Light Backlash: Fans Cancelling Pre-Orders Three Days Before Launch
The Denuvo six-day-add, the casting reaction, the embargo-day timing. A field reading of a launch in motion, three days out from May 27.
Subnautica 2, Ten Days In: The Sentiment Report
1.4M views on jacksepticeye Part 4, the persistent-world hook is delivering, the base-building friction is real. Where the May 14 launch actually stands at the ten-day mark.
Sony State of Play June 2, 2026: Five Things Sony Won't Show
Most previews talk about what Sony will show. The interesting analysis is what they won't. Five absences and what the gap pattern signals about PlayStation's 2026 strategy.
Dead by Daylight x Jason Voorhees: Why Asymmetric Horror Is 2026's Sleeper Genre
The Jason trailer crossed 757,000 views in seven days. Why the genre nobody bet on in 2016 has quietly outlasted battle royales and survival imitators, and what licenses Behaviour gets next.
The 'Forever World' Subscription Death Watch: Hosts Quietly Sunsetting in 2026
Mid-tier hosts that sold "lifetime" plans in 2022-2024 are walking those promises back. The math that always wins, the walk-back patterns, and what to do if you're on a lifetime plan.
Multiplayer Server Hosting Heat Map (Late May 2026): Where Demand Is Actually Spiking
Conan Exiles Enhanced is the breakout, V-Rising rides a free weekend, Windrose crosses 2M sales. One genuine spike, two short-window plays, and the decliners worth knowing before you pick a game to host this month.
Best Palworld Server Hosting in 2026: Honest Comparison
Palworld dedicated server hosts for 2026, DatHost, BisectHosting, GPortal, Apex, Shockbyte, Supercraft. Mod handling, patch cadence, EU/NA coverage, slot-vs-RAM pricing, support reality.
Rust Dedicated Server: Self-Host on a Beefy PC or Pay Someone? The Honest Math
Rust servers eat CPU like nothing else in the survival space. Wipe Wednesday, anti-cheat overhead, plugin frameworks. When self-hosting wins, when paying a real host wins.
Modded Minecraft Server Hosting: What to Look For, Who to Avoid
Modded Minecraft (Forge, Fabric, NeoForge, ATM modpacks) needs more RAM and better single-thread CPUs than vanilla. Honest comparison, what marketing to ignore.
ARK: Survival Ascended Dedicated Server in 2026: Hardware, Setup, Host Options
ASA is the heaviest workload in the mainstream survival-game space. 16GB minimum, 32GB+ recommended. Honest setup with hardware reality and host comparison.
Valheim Dedicated Server: VPS vs Managed Host, Decision Guide
Should you run Valheim on a $5/mo VPS yourself or pay $15/mo for managed? Where each model wins and where the VPS path gets painful, backed by community signal.
Why Single-Thread CPU Performance Dominates Game Servers (and Which Chips to Pick)
Most game-server ticks are essentially single-threaded. A 5.7 GHz desktop chip outperforms a 3.0 GHz 32-core Xeon for Minecraft, Rust, Valheim, ARK, Palworld.
DDoS Protection for Game Servers: What Actually Helps, What Is Marketing
Most game servers will never see a real DDoS. The few that do need actual protection, not the 'unlimited DDoS protection' marketing every host slaps on the homepage.
Crossplay on Dedicated Servers: PC, Xbox, and the PS5 Wall
PC + Xbox crossplay works cleanly on dedicated servers for Palworld, Valheim, ARK, 7DTD. PS5 is usually a separate ecosystem due to Sony's platform agreements.
7 Days to Die Server Hosting in 2026: Who Is Good For It
7DTD's 1.4 release brought stability and crossplay, but server hosting quality varies a lot. Realistic hosts, budget traps, and where the home-host path stops being viable.
Game Server Sizing: RAM, CPU, Disk Per Game Type (With Real Numbers)
A pragmatic per-game sizing table. How much RAM, CPU, and disk each popular survival/sandbox dedicated server actually needs, for 4 / 8 / 16 / 32 player tiers.
Palworld in 2026: V1.0, Sakurajima, Mods & Multiplayer
A 2026 player's guide to Palworld after V1.0. New systems shipped since launch, Sakurajima, dedicated server tooling, the modding scene.