What is the use of Photon Pun and Firebase?

Hi,

I need some guidance, I am trying to involve in online multiplayer game making. However, it is pretty confusing for me. I will have some questions.

firstly, in my game, I want to store each players' data (as like: achievements, gems, bought items) to an cloud data base (or whatever it called) so players can not manipulate the data locally. Also I want to enable login option for the game that player will need an account in order to play game. In this context:

What is the use of Photon Pun and Firebase?
Should I use both in the same game?
Do I need an other tool other than Photon Pun and Firebase?

+ any knowledge would bright me is welcomed.

Thank you in advance.

 

Photon is a Unity asset that provides online multiplayer features to your Unity project.
Firebase is a cloud service that provides things like database hosting & user authentication.

Typically, you'd use Photon to add online multiplayer to your game, and use Firebase to save/load user data.

You could swap Photon for any other asset that provides online multiplayer features, and you could swap Firebase for any other cloud service provider. It's really up to you to experiment with different options if you'd like to.

 

Now that the Unity has gaming services and Epic game service is totally free, are Photon and firebase really needed?

 

Thank you

 

I am new in gaming, actually in terms of Unity online multiplayer. Therefore I am looking for some starter knowledge to sail. Up to now, what I found is photon pun and firebase. I believe Unity did not release any stable service yet. But I will check again, appreciated.