The Challenge
Aspyr had been using an EC2 [Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud] instance running on AWS [Amazon Web Services] with an SFTP [Secure File Transfer Protocol] instance set up in the front end to transfer files. While this worked for the team, it was extremely slow, difficult to scale, and tediously self-managed. Time is always of the essence and Aspyr knew waiting on slow file transfers was not helping them grow their game licensing.
The Solution
Aspyr turned to Signiant Media Shuttle in 2023, when a staff member, previously employed by a top AAA studio, recommended the platform. Signiant’s proprietary acceleration transport technology moves files up to 100x faster than traditional methods like SFTP. This drastically sped up Aspyr operations and allowed them to meet business demands faster.
The Value
Time constraints were once Aspyr’s greatest hurdle — project delays, wasted time babysitting file transfers, and restarting failed uploads lead to inefficient workflows that slowed down proposal processing. Now, with Media Shuttle, Aspyr moves its large game builds and code quickly to get back to doing what they do best — bringing old games back to life.
The Question That Changed Everything
It started as many infrastructure nightmares do, with a duck-taped system that technically worked — but only just. John Blackburn, Aspyr’s IT operations manager, was juggling a homegrown, open-source file transfer set up cobbled together from AWS components — an EC2 instance connected to an S3 [Amazon Simple Storage Service] bucket, stitched together with SFTP Go as the front end. It was fragile, slow, and painfully manual.
The breaking point came in the middle of an RFP [request for proposal] process. Blackburn's boss, the Vice President of Operations, walked over and asked a deceptively simple question “Hey, do we have a way to send source code easily for an RFP?”
With their existing setup, transferring their source code repositories — which are often much larger than the actual game build — was time-consuming, inconsistent, and required constant babysitting. They did have a way to send code, but it was definitely not easy or resource efficient, John brought up a platform that he had used in a previous role — the Signiant Platform’s Media Shuttle — and they haven’t looked back.
Inside Aspyr Media’s Gaming World
Aspyr Media is a prominent video game developer and publisher, known for bringing beloved franchises to new audiences and platforms. With decades of experience licensing, developing, and publishing blockbuster titles, Aspyr’s workflows are deeply rooted in collaboration — both internally and with intellectual property (IP) holders, studios, contractors, and partners around the world.
“Our main business is bringing back old games and there are three ways we do that — reformatting games from new platforms, remastering for a facelift, and rebuilding from the ground up with modern graphics, all while expanding the game to as many modern platforms as possible,” explains Blackburn.
“The creativity really comes in when you’re adding new features to old things,” Blackburn continues. “You can be like, ‘oh, that thing in the sky that kind of looked like a blob before? Well, it’s actually a space ship.”
At any given time, Aspyr has five to ten games in active development. From very early ideation to release and post-support, it’s very common for the team to have a bunch of projects being worked on at the same time.
Code, Complexity, and Costly Delays
As games have continued to grow in size and complexity, so have the files and code required to build them. “[The size of game files] varies wildly,” Blackburn said. “We have had builds for Android and iOS that can be maybe 3GB — so not huge. But then we have projects that are over 60-100GB. So [file sizes] can get larger in gaming, for sure, especially if you’re sending full repositories.”
All of Aspyr’s files are stored in AWS — nothing lives on physical machines. A build node grabs the game repository, copies it locally, runs the necessary build scripts, and then outputs the game build. That file is sent to an S3 bucket under a subfolder, and each game has its own subfolder.
Aspyr’s teams are distributed worldwide and they frequently need to package source — often large repositories stored in AWS S3 — and make it available outside of their Austin HQ. External teams then work with the source code and come back to Aspyr with solutions.
In a business driven by licensing deals and tight deadlines, transfer delays are costly to the bottom line. “We were telling partners this could be delayed days because we were babysitting a file that was uploading, and we didn’t know if it failed,” Blackburn said.
Time to Level Up File Transfers
After Blackburn started at Aspyr, he quickly realized that their file transfer system wasn’t appropriate for their business needs and growth. Having experience using transfer tools like Signiant, Aspera, FTP, and Google Drive in previous roles, Blackburn knew there were better options available than what they were using.
“From all those, I liked Signiant the best, personally,” he recalls. “I did my own RFP process. And as far as ease of use as a feature set, Signiant was what we were looking for, for sure,” Blackburn recollects.
Signiant Media Shuttle is
trusted by the gaming industry's leading developers, designers, publishers, and more. With patented file
acceleration technology, Signiant practically eliminates latency, taking advantage of all available bandwidth, without restrictions.
“Now, we’re not looking at file transfers that are like 6-8 hours long, we’re looking at 50 GB that transfer in like 20 minutes. It’s very low in comparison. It’s been very well received.”
— John Blackburn, Aspyr IT operations manager
With rock-solid reliability built into the platform, Media Shuttle automatically resumes any interrupted transfers from the point of failure. Blackburn has found this particularly helpful as he is notified when transfers are completed to eliminate guesswork and uncertainty.
Moreover, with Media Shuttle, Aspyr gets to control where their content is stored. Signiant
storage independence ensures assets always flow directly into and out of Aspyr’s storage — whether that is on-prem or in the cloud with AWS, Azure, or GCS [Google Cloud Storage]. Aspyr seamlessly maps dedicated Media Shuttle portals to their Amazon S3 buckets, giving the team organized, secure, and fast access to every build.
This once time consuming and error-prone process is now streamlined and secure, allowing Blackburn and his team to send out RFP materials in minutes, instead of hours or even days.
“I can have RFP’s and source codes out in two minutes,” Blackburn avows. “There’s no more back and forth.”
Goodbye Chaos, Hello Control
While streamlining the RFP process was the initial driver behind Aspyr’s search for a large file transfer solution, the team quickly discovered additional ways to improve workflows using Media Shuttle. Game testing and QA [quality assurance] — often handled by both internal and external teams for larger titles — now run much more efficiently.
Previously, QA teams relied on Google Drive to upload and download game builds, which was slow and inconsistent.
“People were pulling builds down from Google Drive, and they would take forever,” Blackburn explained. “Or they would upload it to Google Drive so others could then download it, and it would take forever. Now, it’s always in S3. And we always access it through Media Shuttle. If you want the build, it’ll be under the portal for that game.”
John Blackburn uses Media Shuttle to
manage access with precision, adding users, assigning permissions, restricting access to specific assets, and tracking activity so there’s complete visibility into who’s accessing what.
Building Partnerships for the Future
Partnerships are the lifeblood to Aspyr’s development model, and fast, efficient workflows help the team stay on track — especially when working on titles aligned with major media launches and licensor timelines.
“When you’re in this kind of partnership-driven model, it’s important to align with your collaborators’ expectations. There is a shared understanding that timing is critical.”
For instance, for Aspyr’s recent release
Tomb Raider, the team
remastered six volumes of the iconic game, which was originally created back in 1995. Game character Lara Croft has undergone numerous iterations as well as live-action films that garnered the attention of wider audiences. At the time,
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was the highest grossing movie adapted from a video game. Aspyr’s release comes at the heels of a new
Tomb Raider reboot
announcement confirmed by Amazon Studios as well as a new
Netflix animated series that was released in October 2024.
“When we’re talking about licensers, they have very specific timelines and dates depending on what you’ve agreed upon,” Blackburn attests. “And we want to make sure we’re not the roadblock for anything.”
The Difference Signiant Makes
For Aspyr, adopting Signiant Media Shuttle has been a transformative move, particularly in terms of time savings. Before Media Shuttle, the team often had to constantly monitor uploads, troubleshoot failed transfers, and spend after-hours just making sure files were sent successfully.
The most beneficial thing has been time,” Blackburn shared. “I had to work many after-hours just babysitting files to make sure they uploaded and sent correctly.”
Now, those inefficiencies are a thing of the past, freeing up the team to focus on development and communication with partners. That time savings directly translates to faster business operations. When Blackburn isn’t held back by time constraints, he can return RFPs “sometimes even weeks faster,” thanks to more efficient asset delivery.
“Before, we were telling partners this could be delayed days because we were babysitting a file that was uploading, and we didn’t know if it failed,” Blackburn notes. “Now we’re able to meet tight timelines without hesitation.
Security and scalability have also made a big impact on Aspyr’s business. With single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, the power to automatically scale with their business, and the ability to pass stringent partner audits, Media Shuttle gives Aspyr the peace of mind to focus on the games, rather than transfers.
A Faster Future for Aspyr
Signiant Media Shuttle is now an essential part of Aspyr's game pipeline, helping the team streamline their workflows and focus on what they do best — bringing back world-class games. With Media Shuttle, they save time, reduce risk, and move source code and builds securely around the globe without worrying about constant monitoring, slowdowns, or failures.
“Media Shuttle has literally saved us days’ to weeks' worth of time sometimes,” Blackburn concluded. “If the file is particularly large, it could be the difference between days and weeks.”
Thanks to Media Shuttle, file transfer for Aspyr is no longer a bottleneck — it’s a competitive advantage to get things done faster.
“[Media Shuttle] has streamlined where we find things, how we find things, how we send things, how we download and distribute.” — John Blackburn, Aspyr IT operations manager
Key Media Shuttle Features Supporting Aspyr Media
High-speed file transfer
Media Shuttle’s patented acceleration technology drastically reduces transfer times — turning hours (or even days) into minutes.
Storage Independence
Media Shuttle works with both on-premises storage and major public clouds like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. Aspyr takes advantage of AWS S3, maintaining full control over their storage environment while enabling fast, secure, and reliable transfers.
Granular access control
With fine-tuned permission settings, individual users get access only to the folders they need — with upload, download, or combined rights. This ensures both clarity and security across teams.
Custom Branded portals
Each game build is mapped to its own dedicated Media Shuttle portal, making it easy for collaborators to find the right files quickly — all within a clean, branded interface.
Ease of Use for Non-Technical Users
Designed with simplicity in mind, Media Shuttle allows external partners and contractors to move large files easily without requiring IT support or technical training.
Scalable, Reliable Performance
Whether Aspyr is managing a few projects or juggling a dozen, Media Shuttle scales effortlessly to support growing file sizes and evolving demands — without compromising speed or reliability.