# Game server protection overview

> OpenShield-XDP Game runs the flagship agent's kernel XDP pipeline with a profile tuned for UDP game and voice traffic — same install, same console.
>
> Canonical: https://xdp.network/docs/openshield-xdp-game/game-profile-overview · Updated 2026-08-09

OpenShield-XDP Game is the same OpenShield-XDP agent as the flagship product, loaded
with a mitigation profile tuned for game servers and voice infrastructure. You install
and connect it exactly the same way — only the profile differs.

## What the game profile does differently

The flagship profiles assume a mixed-traffic server. The game profile assumes UDP,
bursts, and players, and it tightens four behaviors:

**Per-player rate limiting.** UDP flood mitigation runs through per-player token
buckets at line rate, inside the kernel XDP path. A flooding client exhausts its own
bucket instead of everyone's bandwidth.

**Lobby-safe burst handling.** A match starting or a lobby filling produces legitimate
join bursts. Lobby-safe filtering absorbs those bursts without false positives, so
real players are never rate-limited for joining at the same moment.

**Query and RCON shielding.** Server browsers and admin tools are classic abuse
vectors. The profile shields query/status (A2S) and RCON traffic from floods without
breaking your listing or remote administration.

**Bloom whitelist.** Trusted IPs — your admins and your own infrastructure — are
accelerated in-kernel, so known-good traffic skips the heaviest checks.

## Who the game edition is for

- Game server hosts running one or more UDP-based servers on their own Linux machine.
- Voice infrastructure operators who need the same line-rate UDP protection.

If you run a fleet of servers or a public target that draws organized campaigns, read
[Game vs Game Pro](/docs/openshield-xdp-game/game-vs-game-pro) before you buy.

## Set up the game profile like the flagship agent

There is no separate installer. Follow the [Quickstart](/docs/getting-started/quickstart):
install the agent, set `metrics.enabled: true`, run `openshield key`, then **Add server**
in the console. Select the game preset with the `profile` key in
`/etc/openshield/openshield.yaml`; `openshield profile list` shows the installed presets.

## Next steps

- [Quickstart](/docs/getting-started/quickstart)
- [Supported protocols and engines](/docs/openshield-xdp-game/supported-protocols)
- [Tuning profiles](/docs/openshield-xdp/tuning-profiles)