Our new plan structure
Later this January, Simplay would open its second datacenter — Amsterdam (yay!).
The move would also introduce many updates to the service, including new streaming technology, a new custom-built network protocol, stronger servers and increased capacity. To top it all off, we’ll be introducing a new plan structure.
A good start
When we first started out serving paying users, we set up a plan layout at greatly reduced beta prices (we pretty much charged 50% off). We didn’t feel confortable enough to charge a full price, and we mostly wanted to get a feel on how people accept the product. We named the plans CASUAL, GAMER and PRO, and eventually added TRIAL as a standalone plan.
This plan layout has served us well for the past couple of months. People seemed to like the GAMER plan the most, but the plans only differ in available storage. They don’t offer any flexibility in choosing a stronger Cloud PC, for example. We got a lot of requests to add a stronger PRO plan with more processing power (we never actually got to implementing it).
Our new datacenter uses stronger hardware, so this is a good point in time to re-frame our plan structure.
A new chapter
We knew that sooner or later we’ll “grow out” of beta pricing, but we wanted to first make sure we’re offering a product that is on par with other similar solutions in the market. In recent months we’ve been getting amazing feedback from the community, and we’re confident that Simplay offers great value. It’s time to start a new chapter in our journey.
So without further delay, we’re glad to announce our new plan structure! Plans would be rolling out progressively over the coming months, starting with the newly named RARE plan. The specifics are not final yet as we keep experimenting with stuff, but this general layout is what we have in mind:
Under the hood
All new plans utilize the latest-generation nVidia TESLA P40 GPU. This monster server-grade card includes 24 GB of RAM, 3,840 CUDA cores and over 12 billion transistors. The RARE plan would offer 30–50% improved performance over the existing CASUAL/GAMER plans, so you could expect to get a lot more out of it.
The RARE plan is powered by 4 dedicated cores on an Intel XEON server-grade CPU, and 3GB of dedicated nVidia TESLA P40 vRAM. It also includes 12GB DDR4 RAM and 256 GB of storage.
We would also include discounted prices for longer commitment periods. We’ll share more information on that in the coming weeks.
New format for trial
Our current trial plan offers users 24 hours of full access. This model has some limitations, as users who join the trial during the weekend find it hard to find open slots and evaluate the service. We offer trial plans so people could actually play and get a feel of the product in their own home, so obviously when people cant play the trial misses it’s point.
So, we decided to change the trial model. Instead of offering 24 hours of full access, we’ll be offering 5 full hours of acumulated gaming time. These 5 hours could be accumulated over a 1 month period, so we could ensure new users actually get to play and could properly evaluate Simplay.
More to come!
We have a couple of other cool stuff up our sleeve, like a super-interesting referral program for example. We’ll be sharing more info on everything over the course of the next months, so stay tuned!
