Photon Engine is the multiplayer platform of Exit Games, a company with offices in Hamburg, Germany, and Portland, USA. Games use Photon SDKs to connect players through the Photon Cloud, which Exit Games hosts and operates, instead of running their own game servers.
What it does
- Puts players into rooms through matchmaking in the Photon Cloud regions.
- Synchronizes game state (Fusion) or player inputs (Quantum) over the network.
- Adds voice and text chat with Photon Voice and Chat.
Is Photon a game engine?
No. Despite the name, Photon does not render graphics or replace Unity or Unreal. It is the networking layer of the game:
- Fusion is a state synchronization library for Unity, with client-side prediction and lag compensation. There is also a Fusion SDK for Unreal.
- Quantum is a deterministic ECS framework for Unity games with up to 128 players, using predict/rollback.
- Realtime is the low-level API underneath Fusion and Quantum.
- PUN 2 is in maintenance mode: it only gets fixes, and Photon recommends Fusion or Quantum for new projects.
Photon dashboard and App ID
The Photon Dashboard is where you create and list App IDs. An account is free and only requires an email address (documentation). Each SDK uses its own App ID type: a Fusion App ID does not work for Voice or Chat. In the dashboard you can also choose which regions each app may use (Region Allowlist).
Regions
The Photon Cloud for gaming lists 16 regions, including São Paulo (sa), Washington D.C. (us), San José (usw), Dallas (ussc), Amsterdam (eu) and Singapore (asia). The Chinese Mainland region (cn) must be unlocked and has its own conditions.
Public pricing
Public Cloud plans for gaming:
- 20 CCU free, for development only.
- 100 CCU free for launch, for one app only.
- 100 CCU for $95, one-time payment valid for 12 months.
- 500 CCU for $125/month, 1,000 CCU for $250/month and 2,000 CCU for $500/month.
- Premium Cloud: $0.50 per CCU, billed on monthly usage, up to 50,000 CCU. Enterprise Cloud: by contact.
CCU is the sum of peak concurrent users across all regions. Photon allows temporary bursts above the plan and bills the overage on the next invoice; after the first burst you have 48 hours to upgrade before Photon may cap the CCU. Each plan includes traffic (for example, 3 GB per CCU), and traffic above it is billed.
Strengths
- Managed cloud in 16 gaming regions, with no game servers to operate.
- SDKs for Unity, Unreal, consoles, mobile and web.
- Free tiers for development and for launching one app.
Points of attention
- Cost follows CCU peaks; bursts are billed and can be capped after 48 hours.
- PUN 2 only receives fixes; new projects should start on Fusion or Quantum.
- Quantum is Unity-only; Fusion also has an Unreal SDK.
Sources
All accessed on October 11, 2026.
- Photon Engine – Multiplayer Game Development Made Easy, Photon Engine. Accessed October 11, 2026.
- Regulatory, Photon Engine. Accessed October 11, 2026.
- Photon Fusion Pricing, Photon Engine. Accessed October 11, 2026.
- Fusion 2 Introduction, Photon Engine Docs. Accessed October 11, 2026.
- Quantum 3 Intro, Photon Engine Docs. Accessed October 11, 2026.
- Realtime Intro, Photon Engine Docs. Accessed October 11, 2026.
- PUN 2 Introduction, Photon Engine Docs. Accessed October 11, 2026.
- How to Obtain Your App ID, Photon Engine Docs. Accessed October 11, 2026.
- Regions, Photon Engine Docs. Accessed October 11, 2026.
- SDK Downloads, Photon Engine. Accessed October 11, 2026.