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What's happening to Azure Game Development Virtual Machine?

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Important

Azure Game Development Virtual Machine is scheduled for retirement on February 1st, 2024. Learn more.

Azure Game Development Virtual Machine is scheduled for retirement by February 1st, 2024. While the decision has been made to retire this Azure Marketplace Application, we remain committed to our game developers with more GPU optimized virtual machine options, which are tailored to 3D game creation.

In addition, we’re providing the scripts for building Azure VM for game development purposes as open source in Azure Virtual Directory (AVD) Landing Zone Accelerator repository.

In scenarios where dedicated GPUs are not required, consider using Microsoft Dev Box, which is a managed Azure service that enables developers to create on-demand, high-performance, secure, ready-to-code, project-specific workstations in the cloud.

Support timeline

The following notes outline the timeline for support.

Key dates What happens
On or before Jan 2nd, 2024 No substantial product changes. Microsoft will still support the product without adding new features. Users can still:
  • Create new Game Dev VMs.
  • Use existing Game Dev VMs.
After Jan 2nd, 2024, and on or before Feb 1st, 2024 The Game Dev VM marketplace application will not be visible for new Azure subscriptions.
  • Creation of new Azure Game Development Virtual Machines will only be available for existing Game Dev VM users.
  • Any Game Dev VM created before Jan 2nd, 2024, will continue to run.
After Feb 1st, 2024 The Game Dev VM marketplace application will no longer be listed in Azure marketplace.
  • The creation of new Azure Game Development Virtual Machines will not be available for any users.
  • Existing virtual machines will continue to run for as long as you keep those resources provisioned in your Azure subscription.

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