Azure PlayFab provides reliable P2P connectivity for Capcom’s flagship games

For the latest installments in its popular Street Fighter and Monster Hunter series, Capcom wanted to boost the reliability of P2P connections, which was essential for delivering the games on more platforms and providing seamless multi-player fun.

Azure PlayFab was the answer. The Microsoft solution was the perfect backend system to support P2P connectivity at the scale required by Capcom’s flagship titles, and the company has gone on to apply Azure PlayFab functions in several other games.

Azure PlayFab successfully connected players in 87 percent of cases in Street Fighter 6 via P2P, with 99.66 percent of connection attempts (P2P or relay) succeeding. The results for the four-player hunts in Monster Hunter Wilds were similarly superb.

Azure PlayFab enables cross-network play on more platforms and boosts P2P connection rates

Capcom created the Street Fighter game series over 35 years ago, releasing the latest installment, Street Fighter 6, in June 2023. Coming seven years after its predecessor, Street Fighter 6 garnered high praise from fans for its innovative gameplay and vastly improved visuals. By June 2025, two years after its release, the game had sold over 5 million copies worldwide. The series dominates the esports fighting genre, with over 56 million units sold to date.

The backend system for connecting Street Fighter 6 players is Microsoft Azure PlayFab (“Azure PlayFab”). According to Keiji Sakamoto, Lead Engineer at Capcom, the developer uses it to “expand cross-network play and boost peer to peer (P2P) connection rates.”

Cross-network play allows players on different gaming platforms to play online multiplayer games together. With P2P technology, players communicate directly with each other to play a game instead of going through a server. Although P2P provides a better playing experience with faster response speeds, players’ network environments may hinder connections. Consequently, connection rates are important indicators.

“Street Fighter V offered cross-network play via P2P, but supported fewer platforms, and we wanted better P2P connection rates,” says Sakamoto. However, building a system to handle such challenges is extremely complex, so when Capcom began work on Street Fighter 6 in 2021, it consulted with the team behind its in-house development engine (RE Engine) and investigated external services.

“There were very few P2P services available,” says Sakamoto. “We talked with Microsoft, which proposed Azure PlayFab.”

Capcom adopted Azure PlayFab in August 2021, attracted by the P2P support and reliability at scale. Sakamoto explains the benefits below.

“Azure PlayFab provides an incredible connection rate. We’ve achieved a previously unimaginable rate of 99.66 percent, including P2P and relays. It’s also enabled cross-network play on Nintendo Switch 2 since the console launched. We are seeing low latency and very few failures.”

“In addition to great stability and reliability at scale, Azure PlayFab is evolving for the future through rapid technological updates. The ability to talk directly to Microsoft is massively reassuring. We’ll choose the best backend system for each title, but Azure PlayFab is ahead of the rest.”

Kota Fukasawa, Deputy General Manager, System Infrastructure Department, Capcom

Monster Hunter Wilds delivers stable gameplay for over a million concurrent players

Street Fighter 6 isn’t the only Capcom game using Azure PlayFab. Monster Hunter Wilds, which released in February 2025, also leverages the system for its backend.

This latest game in the Monster Hunter series pits players against gargantuan creatures in the majesty of nature. Azure PlayFab connects and organizes users into four-player parties to complete quests. A standout feature of the game is the introduction of cross-network play for the first time in the series.

“Monster Hunter Wilds is the first cross-network play title in the series, opening the series to more users across the globe,” says Yoshinori Nishitani, Senior Manager of Capcom’s Network Development Section. The company anticipated more users than ever before, so handling that increase was critical.

Based on sales trends of previous titles in the series and pre-release excitement for Monster Hunter Wilds, Capcom expected a record number of users, especially at launch. In March 2025, after one month on the market, Wilds passed 10 million sales worldwide.

To handle the forecast challenges, Capcom examined external services when it started developing the game in 2020. After hearing that Street Fighter 6 would use Azure PlayFab, Nishitani began talking with Microsoft in 2021.

Importantly, Monster Hunter Wilds and Street Fighter 6 are very different types of games. Street Fighter 6 is a fighting game, so response speed has a big impact on how the game feels. Monster Hunter Wilds focuses on action and a co-operative experience. For Wilds, Capcom knew a massive number of users would play simultaneously, which made service stability essential.

“We decided to use Azure PlayFab for Monster Hunter Wilds for three major reasons,” says Nishitani. “The first was its ability to handle many users. Microsoft has expertise in running the massive Xbox online service network. The second reason was cost - Azure PlayFab is cheaper than in-house solutions and lends itself to long-term use. The third was voice chat.”

The chat features of previous Monster Hunter titles were platform-dependent, relying on game console software development kits. Additionally, many players chose to use other chat services. This time, Capcom wanted to incorporate chat directly into the Monster Hunter Wilds game world.

Immediately after launching in February 2025, despite over a million concurrent connections from around the world, the game delivered a stable experience. P2P connections for party formation have an 86.69 percent success rate, rising to 99.88 percent when including retries. This number is astounding considering that four players are being matched.

“Azure PlayFab provides an incredible connection rate. We’ve achieved a previously unimaginable rate of 99.66 percent, including P2P and relays. It’s also enabled cross-network play on Nintendo Switch 2 since the console launched. We are seeing low latency and very few failures.”

Keiji Sakamoto, Lead Engineer, Game Programs One, Capcom

“Future-oriented choices” are imperative for backend systems

While Azure PlayFab is an essential part of Capcom’s P2P cross-network play games, it has many more uses in other games.

“We got the ball rolling with 2019’s Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, which uses Azure PlayFab’s telemetry functions,” says Kota Fukasawa, Deputy General Manager of the System Infrastructure Department. This marked the beginning of Capcom’s relationship with Microsoft regarding Azure PlayFab. “Azure PlayFab has a wide range of features, so we use it in a variety of ways, even on titles which don’t use cross-network play or P2P,” he explains.

According to Fukasawa, backend systems shouldn’t be selected based on familiarity alone. It’s necessary to thoroughly explore what’s best for each title and make future-oriented choices based on upcoming trends.

“In addition to great stability and reliability at scale, Azure PlayFab is evolving for the future through rapid technological updates,” says Fukasawa. “The ability to talk directly to Microsoft is massively reassuring. We’ll choose the best backend system for each title, but Azure PlayFab is ahead of the rest.”

“Another big advantage is that Microsoft can help us solve a wide variety of problems,” adds Sakamoto. “For example, P2P connections can fail for many reasons, but through Microsoft’s support, we achieved a P2P connection rate of 87.02 percent.”

Capcom is considering expanding its use of Azure PlayFab. “Cross-network play between Asian countries is becoming more popular, so we’re interested in automatic chat translation,” says Sakamoto. Nishitani adds, “While we’re currently building our own lobby in which players can interact, we’re also examining Azure PlayFab’s lobby feature for future use.”

It looks like Azure PlayFab will become an even bigger part of Capcom’s future.

“We decided to use Azure PlayFab for Monster Hunter Wilds for three major reasons. The first was its ability to handle many users. Microsoft has expertise in running the massive Xbox online service network. The second reason was cost - Azure PlayFab is cheaper than in-house solutions and lends itself to long-term use. The third was voice chat.”

Yoshinori Nishitani, Senior Manager, Network Development Section, Capcom