Customer Introduction
Headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, JOYCITY is a prominent developer and publisher in the gaming industry. With a legacy spanning nearly three decades since its 1994 inception, the company has consistently delivered engaging experiences for a global audience. Through a diverse, multi-genre portfolio across both PC and mobile platforms, JOYCITY has built a formidable international footprint and earned its reputation as a trusted name in the highly competitive global market.
The company’s flagship products are highly regarded globally, featuring proprietary intellectual properties (IPs) alongside world-class collaborative titles. Key games include the Freestyle: Street Basketball series, which significantly popularizes PC sports games, and the highly successful mobile strategy game Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War, which has maintained a strong, active player base for over a decade. Additionally, JOYCITY publishes popular global strategic titles like Gunship Battle: Total Warfare, Oceans & Empires, and Game of Dice, entertaining millions of users across several continents.
Over the last three decades, JOYCITY has consolidated its position in the global market by consistently adopting a "global one-build" architecture to unify its player communities worldwide. This extensive publishing capability is backed by a robust internal division focused on continuous technological innovation and live-service operations, enabling the company to maintain high user retention rates across its diverse catalog of games.
Challenges & Goals
Ensuring High-Quality Connectivity for a Rapidly Growing Chinese Player Base
JOYCITY faced the critical challenge of maintaining stable, low-latency connection speeds for its rapidly expanding player base in the Chinese mainland while operating on a global infrastructure. Across major global mobile titles such as Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War, Oceans & Empires, and Game of Dice, the influx of Chinese players created an urgent need for an optimized network route. The company had to deliver a completely smooth, lag-free experience without regional fragmentation, preventing latency spikes that could lead to game disruption and player churn.
Supporting a Unified Global One-Build Game Architecture Without Regional Fracturing
JOYCITY required a robust, scalable global network framework to power its global "one-build" architecture, which connects international players within a single server ecosystem. Managing global one-build titles means that players from various continents must interact in real-time, necessitating extreme network stability. Meeting these stringent performance demands required a specialized infrastructure capable of optimizing "last-mile" user-to-server paths and bridging legacy servers with modern, multi-regional cloud networks seamlessly.
Defending Against Frequent and Severe DDoS Attacks on PC Titles
JOYCITY needed to protect its popular PC gaming titles from frequent, heavy Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks that threatened game server availability and player trust. Competitive online multiplayer games, such as the FreeStyle series, are frequent targets for sophisticated cyber threats. These persistent DDoS attacks caused severe connection drops and performance degradation, making the deployment of an enterprise-grade security shield an absolute priority for JOYCITY's technical operations team.
Why Tencent Cloud
Exceptional Network Capabilities in the Asia-Pacific Region and Globally
JOYCITY selected Tencent Cloud due to its highly robust network infrastructure within the Asia-Pacific region and its robust global network topology designed specifically for gaming traffic. Tencent Cloud’s extensive network footprint across the region provided JOYCITY with the optimal bridge to reach its massive, geographically dispersed user base. By deploying core infrastructure components like Cloud Virtual Machine (CVM), Cloud Block Storage (CBS), and Cloud Load Balancer (CLB) on Tencent Cloud, JOYCITY created a highly resilient and reliable server architecture to power its live operations.
Game-Optimized Security and Acceleration with EdgeOne and Anycast Internet Acceleration (AIA)
JOYCITY integrated Tencent Cloud EdgeOne and Anycast Internet Acceleration (AIA) to combine advanced DDoS mitigation with accelerated last-mile game delivery. With Tencent Cloud EdgeOne, JOYCITY successfully established a unified security and acceleration layer at the network edge, effectively neutralizing major DDoS threats before they could impact game servers. Concurrently, Anycast Internet Acceleration (AIA) was introduced to optimize the routing of real-time game traffic, bypassing standard public internet congestion and delivering a high-bandwidth, low-jitter environment for players across different regions.
Hands-On, Round-the-Clock Collaborative Support from Gaming Experts
JOYCITY benefited from the collaborative, high-touch technical support provided by Tencent Cloud’s dedicated engineering team throughout the migration and ongoing operations. Tencent Cloud provided highly responsive, direct troubleshooting and architectural guidance tailored specifically to gaming workloads. This dedicated assistance ensured that JOYCITY could transition critical systems to Tencent Cloud with minimal operational risk.
"From the initial onboarding phase through ongoing daily operations, the Tencent Cloud team has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us, providing hands-on technical assistance and dedicated operational safeguards at critical junctures."
— Ji Wook Choi, Information & System Team Leader at JOYCITY
Advanced Security Features and Data Integrity Protection
JOYCITY deployed a comprehensive suite of security solutions, including NAT Gateway, VPN Connection, and Key Management Service (KMS), to maintain strict data integrity and network isolation. To protect internal communication channels and comply with global privacy standards, JOYCITY utilized KMS to implement robust, encrypted transmission across all network links. Backup processes were also strengthened using snapshot features to ensure that player data and game configurations remain secure against any unforeseen disasters.
Highlighted Benefits
1. Achieving Up to 45% in Infrastructure Cost Reductions
By migrating key gaming workloads to Tencent Cloud, JOYCITY achieved significant cost optimization, reducing operational IT expenses by 15% to 45% across its services. Through a meticulous analysis of its previous architecture, the company demonstrated the high efficiency of Tencent Cloud’s resource utilization. Even conservatively optimized services secured a 15% reduction, while heavily optimized workloads reached peak savings exceeding 45%, providing the company with substantial financial flexibility.
2. Drastic Reduction in Latency and Robust DDoS Protection
By deploying Tencent Cloud’s security and acceleration suite, JOYCITY significantly mitigated persistent DDoS threats and effectively stabilized network connections for its global player base. Following the integration of Tencent Cloud EdgeOne, the company secured robust protection against high-volume cyber threats, maintaining consistent game availability even during active attacks. Furthermore, the combination of Anycast Internet Acceleration (AIA) and high-performance TencentDB for Redis caching markedly reduced packet transmission delays, fostering a smoother and more immersive player experience.
3.A Foundation for Continued Strategic Collaboration and Global Growth
Having navigated the complex infrastructure requirements of both the Chinese mainland and international gaming markets, JOYCITY has established a strategic partnership with Tencent Cloud. This relationship is defined by a collaborative approach, positioning Tencent Cloud as a core partner rather than a conventional infrastructure vendor. Both organizations are committed to the upcoming launch of new titles and the integration of next-generation technologies, aiming to provide a premium interactive entertainment experience to a global audience.