| Age of Ascent | |
| Developer: | Illyriad Games[1] |
| Publisher: | Illyriad Games |
| Platforms: | Web browser |
| Genre: | Space trading and combat simulator, first-person shooter |
| Modes: | Multiplayer |
Age of Ascent is an ambitious video game,[2] that aims to become the largest MMO game ever created.[3] It utilizes a cutting-edge, on-demand scaling cloud-based architecture and features real-time direct piloting in a single integrated universe.[4] The game was officially announced on February 28, 2014.
On March 14, 2014 Age of Ascent attempted to set a new Guinness World Record for the "World's Largest Videogame PvP Battle" during a public alpha.[5] The alpha was designed to support over 50,000 players with a throttling mechanism in place to handle up to 2,000,000 players. However, at its peak, the test saw 997 concurrent players, utilizing only 2% of the deployed server CPU capacity, falling short of the record of 4075.[6]
Age of Ascent stands out from other games in its genre by being browser-based and leveraging WebGL technology for its implementation. This allows players to jump into the game instantly, regardless of their device, without the need to install plug-ins, apps or executables.[7]
Powered by Microsoft Azure, Age of Ascent has been designed from the ground up to scale across hundreds of computers, creating a single, seamless, and cohesive universe. Dubbed as the pioneer of ultra-MMOs, Age of Ascent is set to revolutionize the genre.[8]
Illyriad Games collaborated closely with the Microsoft Technology Centre and the Microsoft Developer eXperience Technical Evangelism & Development team to fully harness the capabilities of the Azure platform.
To ensure responsiveness the game is distributed across multiple datacenters worldwide, providing high-bandwidth, low-latency network access for players, globally.