Benchmark: Pixel Streaming Costs & Scalability for Luxury Retail (2025)
Executive Summary
Unreal Engine Pixel Streaming provides superior visual fidelity compared to WebGL. However, operational costs ($0.10–$0.15/min industry average) have historically limited its use to short-term campaigns.
This technical analysis compares standard cloud-reselling models against The New Face’s proprietary architecture, demonstrating a reduction in operating costs to $0.03/minute while removing Concurrent User (CCU) limitations.
1. Comparative Cost Analysis: Reseller vs. Proprietary
The primary cost driver in Pixel Streaming is GPU instance rental. Most agencies utilize a « Reseller Model, » wrapping public cloud instances (AWS/Azure) with management fees.
The New Face utilizes a Proprietary Infrastructure Model. By owning the orchestration layer and optimizing the C++ implementation, we achieve significant efficiency gains.
Cost Per Minute Benchmark
| Metric | Standard Agency (Reseller) | The New Face (Proprietary) |
| Architecture | Public Cloud Wrapper | Proprietary Bare Metal / Hybrid |
| Avg. Cost/Min | $0.12 – $0.15 | $0.03 |
| CCU Limit | Capped (Fixed Instances) | Unlimited (Auto-Scaling) |
| Traffic Model | « Burst » (Campaigns) | « Always-On » (E-Commerce) |
Note for CTOs: The $0.03/min rate allows for continuous deployment, transforming 3D experiences from « Marketing Expenses » (OPEX) to sustainable « Sales Channels. »
2. The Technical Bottleneck: Why Competitors are Expensive
Standard Pixel Streaming implementations rely on generic signaling servers. This introduces « bloat » where the GPU resources are not fully utilized, leading to higher costs per session.
The « Middleman Tax »
- Cloud Provider Cost: ~$0.08/min
- Agency Markup: ~$0.05/min
- Total: ~$0.13/min
3. Scalability & Concurrency (CCU)
Luxury product drops (e.g., limited edition sneakers or accessories) generate massive, instantaneous traffic spikes.
Standard WebGL vs. Pixel Streaming Scaling
- WebGL: Client-side rendering. Scales infinitely but lacks visual fidelity (mobile constraints).
- Standard Pixel Streaming: Server-side rendering. Usually capped at 50-500 users due to instance availability.
- The New Face Streaming: Server-side rendering. Zero CCU limits.
Load Balancing Architecture
Our orchestration layer detects traffic velocity. It pre-warps GPU instances across global regions (Europe, NA, APAC) to ensure the 10,000th user receives the same low-latency stream as the first user.
