McGame E-Commerce Platform
McGame: eight years of modernization, from Ruby on Rails to an e-commerce platform that scales.
A games marketplace that needed a new foundation
Initial situation & goals
McGame.com is a leading German platform for selling PC and Mac games as downloads. Between 2014 and 2022, we rebuilt its technology so the platform could keep growing.
Goals
Approach
Safe data migration
Move all data over without errors.
Technical modernization
Replace the Ruby on Rails architecture with a platform that can be maintained for years.
Better user experience
Improve usability and the conversion rate.
Long-term scalability
A platform that handles regular traffic peaks.
From relaunch to ongoing improvement
Approach
A multi-stage process that laid the groundwork for McGame's long-term development.
Project management
Multi-stage migration
Iterative improvements, coordinated with external service providers.
Close collaboration
Regular check-ins between our development team and partners.
Technologies & tools
E-commerce
Magento, Symfony, MySQL and Redis.
Search
Apache Solr, later Elasticsearch for better search results.
Caching
A content delivery network (CDN).
Integration
REST APIs, payment gateways, partner APIs and OAuth.
Team & roles
Development team
Specialists for backend, frontend and DevOps.
Migration specialists
Responsible for moving the data safely.
Product management
Ongoing feature planning and prioritization.
Key milestones and challenges
Implementation
From analysis to ongoing tuning, the work happened in several phases.
- 2014
Takeover
Analyzed the Ruby on Rails platform and planned the migration.
- 2015
Relaunch
Migrated all data and launched the new platform.
- 2016
Extensions
Integration with COMPUTER BILD and new payment methods.
- 2022
Optimization
Performance improvements and ongoing development.
Main challenges
Data migration
- Moving thousands of products and customer records without downtime.
Usability
- Redesigning the interface to raise the conversion rate.
Scalability
- Building stable infrastructure for traffic peaks.
Results: migration, performance and partnerships
Results
Platform migration
A smooth switchover with all data moved to the new platform.
New technology and partner integrations added efficiently.
Performance
A better conversion rate thanks to a modern shop structure.
Faster page loads and happier customers.
Long-term partnerships
Integration with COMPUTER BILD and new payment systems.
Eight years of continuous development and support.
What we learned about migrations and long-term work
Lessons learned
Modernizing McGame taught us a lot about migration and scaling.
Migration know-how
Thorough planning and testing are essential when moving data.
Technical foundation
A modern architecture leaves room for growth and change.
Partnerships
Working closely together keeps the improvements coming.
Next steps
Integrate more partner services.
Expand the games catalog and add new features for customers.
Keep improving performance and usability.
Bottom line
McGame.com is a good example of modernizing an e-commerce platform. The move from Ruby on Rails to a maintainable architecture, followed by eight years of continuous development, shows how steady technical work supports a business.
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