#3 - Square Enix Case Study

Serverless Economics

If you’re a fan of video games then you won’t want to miss this episode as hosts, Ryan Jones and Joshua Proto, take a look into Square Enix's decision to use serverless in their efforts to better run their Dragon Quest X phone app. Square Enix is a Japanese based video game company with flagship games such as Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, and Dragon Quest to just name a few. They have been innovators in their field for decades but what does the introduction of serverless have in store for them?
And if you like this podcast and want more Serverless content, then check out Ryan and Josh's other podcast Talking Serverless where they chat with people doing amazing things in the world of Cloud Computing. Always free: talkingserverless.io
Summary of Case Study:

1. Developers at Square Enix realize that image processing is resource-intensive on their gaming app Dragon Quest X.
   
2. That means there is a spike in server load when a lot of people take screenshots at the same time, such as during events. Usually, 200 to 300 images are received for processing each minute, but during New Year's Eve in-game events, this can climb as high as 6,000 images per minute.
   
3. Accelerating this process and boosting customer satisfaction was one of the challenges Square Enix faced in growing its customer base. AWS Lambda had a striking effect. Image processing that used to take several hours was finished in a little over 10 seconds.