As Online Gaming Demand Doubles, Equinix and i3D.net Accelerate Underlying Digital Infrastructure with Ubisoft

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. and ROTTERDAM, Netherlands, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the world's digital infrastructure company™, has been chosen by application hosting and infrastructure service provider i3D.net to support its global gaming platform. Acquired by one of the world's largest game publishers, Ubisoft, i3D.net provides a global low-latency network and has partnered with Equinix to gain proximity to its end users following an uptick in activity.

The gaming market is experiencing solid growth and is forecast to increase from US$42.2 billion in 2020 to US$46.7b in 2025. In addition to organic worldwide expansion, i3D.net has seen its gaming business grow significantly, with capacity needs doubling. With an uptick in usage and global demand for a highly immersive and consistent end-user experience, as well as new game launches, e-sports events and popularity spikes of a particular game, the need for high-speed connectivity to sync games and perform deployment tests increased.

i3D.net moved its gaming platform to Platform Equinix®—integrating into 38 Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers across the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe—to provide the low-latency connectivity necessary to ensure a seamless gaming experience. Widespread cloud adoption and access have changed the way video and mobile games are developed, delivered and played. By rearchitecting its supporting digital infrastructure accordingly, i3D.net can offer scalability and an instant immersive gaming experience, regardless of location.

"With online gaming undergoing an unprecedented surge in popularity, Equinix can strategically support i3D.net in delivering the best possible user experience to gamers around the world," said Matt George, Director of Segment Marketing, EMEA, Equinix. "Gamers are always striving to level-up, pushing themselves to better their skills and expanding their game-base; they expect nothing less from developers and providers. With new levels of demand, gaming platforms must be supported by robust digital infrastructure to enable the transfer of information at high speeds to ensure smooth game playing, while also offering the utmost security to protect sensitive player details."

Equinix will provide i3D.net with a dependable and highly connected global infrastructure that offers the requisite processing power and network speed to perform game development builds quickly, using a point-to-point approach. Equinix is the foundation behind the single portal that i3D.net offers its customers where they can easily scale highly customized gaming environments and traffic for the best customer experience. It allocates gaming traffic to burst into multiple cloud accounts that gamers need from AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, through the interconnection of 40 exchanges.

Rick Sloot, Chief Operating Officer, i3D.net, commented: "We are committed to providing the best experience for our users' gaming platforms, no matter where they are, so our network is one of the most important pillars of our company. Having healthy interconnection services that connect the i3D.net network with Platform Equinix means we can deliver the lowest latency to our end users, removing the frustration of in-game lag. Equinix's interconnection services are extremely reliable and powerful, allowing us to grow anywhere in the world."

Equinix and i3D.net (along with Ubisoft) have a shared outlook on sustainability with both companies announcing their ambition to reduce their carbon footprint. Equinix is the first data center operator to commit to reaching climate-neutral by 2030 globally, backed by science-based targets and a sustainability innovation agenda. Ubisoft is also working on a carbon footprint reduction plan with a short-term goal to decarbonize their direct operations to reduce emissions by 8.8% per employee (based on 2019 levels) by 2023, and a plan for 2030 which will be submitted to the Science-Based Targets initiative for validation, in line with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.

i3D.net has deployed at Equinix locations in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Dubai, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Madrid, Milan, Paris, São Paulo, Seattle, Silicon Valley, Singapore, Sweden, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Warsaw and Washington, D.C.

Additional Resources

• Equinix and i3D.net Accelerate Global Online Gaming Growth [blog]
• i3D.net Uses Real-Time Data to Get Ahead in Gaming [video]
• The 3 L's of Gaming – Location, Location & Latency [blog]
• Learn more about Platform Equinix® [website]
• Learn about i3D.net [website]
• Learn about Ubisoft [website]
• Equinix Sets 2030 Global Climate-Neutral Target [press release]

About Equinix
Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) is the world's digital infrastructure company, enabling digital leaders to harness a trusted platform to bring together and interconnect the foundational infrastructure that powers their success. Equinix enables today's businesses to access all the right places, partners and possibilities they need to accelerate advantage. Equinix can scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class experiences, and multiply their value.

About i3D.net
i3D.net is one of the leading providers of high-performance hosting and global infrastructure services. The company operates a low-latency network, with thousands of servers spread over 40+ points of presence on 6 continents. i3D.net excels in the gaming market and hosts a variety of AAA games, which led to its acquisition by Ubisoft in 2019. They continue to help various large-scale gaming & enterprise customers deploy, scale, and manage their applications to over 300 million users globally. i3D.net's goal is to reach 1 billion users on its platform by 2025. For more information visit i3D.net.

About Ubisoft
Ubisoft is a leading creator, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and services, with a rich portfolio of world-renowned brands, including Assassin's Creed®, Far Cry®, For Honor®, Just Dance®, Watch Dogs®, and Tom Clancy's video game series including Ghost Recon®, Rainbow Six® and The Division®. The teams throughout Ubisoft's worldwide network of studios and business offices are committed to delivering original and memorable gaming experiences across all popular platforms, including consoles, mobile phones, tablets and PCs. For the 2020-21 fiscal year, Ubisoft generated net bookings of €2,241 million. To learn more, please visit: www.ubisoftgroup.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from expectations discussed in such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, the challenges of acquiring, operating and constructing IBX^® data centers and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix products and solutions; unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenues from customers in recently built out or acquired data centers; a failure to complete any financing arrangements contemplated from time to time; competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business from our key customers; risks related to our taxation as a REIT; and other risks described from time to time in Equinix filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see recent Equinix quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available upon request from Equinix. Equinix does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.

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SOURCE Equinix, Inc.