The data room for closed playtests, publisher pitches and studio sales
Riot Games uses Peony for playtests. Share guides, NDAs, replays and deal files with thousands of outside viewers, and see exactly who opened what. Per-viewer watermarks trace leaks, allow lists control entry, and anomaly alerts flag access that doesn't add up.
No credit card · 7-day Data Room trial that never auto-charges · playtesters, publishers and partners view free, no account · 24/7 support
Trusted by Riot Games
8,000+ customers in 60+ countries · $44.7B in client assets
Peony staff can't open your documents, your documents aren't used to train AI, and Peony has had no data breach since launch.
What is Peony for game studios, and who is it for?
Peony is a virtual data room that game studios and publishers use to protect closed playtests, share replays and pitches, and run studio sales. Riot Games uses it for playtests.
- Run the closed test: import thousands of participants into an allow list, verify each email, and require a signed NDA before anyone sees the material.
- Share recordings safely: stream replays and session captures with the viewer's identity over the picture, and see who opened each video.
- Handle the deals: give each publisher, investor or bidder its own view of your game design document, budget, KPIs and contracts.
Peony at a glance
- Built for
- Game studios, publishers, user research and security teams, from indie closed betas to AAA playtests with thousands of participants
- Typical plan
- Data Room, $52 per admin per month billed yearly ($75 monthly): unlimited rooms, documents and storage, a signed NDA with audit record, dynamic watermarks, granular folder and file permissions, Visitor Q&A, a custom domain, AI room generation and Index documents.
- Pricing
- Business $30, Data Room $52 and Deal Team $64 (minimum 4 admins) per admin per month billed yearly ($44, $75 and $89 monthly); Enterprise is custom. Free ($0) covers 50 documents and 500 MB as tracked single-file links; data rooms start on Business.
- Playtesters, publishers and partners
- Playtesters, publishers and partners are unlimited and free on every plan and don't need a Peony account. You pay per admin, not per viewer.
- Rooms and storage
- Unlimited data rooms, documents and storage on Data Room and above, and no per-file size cap on any plan. Business includes 3 data rooms per admin, 1,000 documents per admin and 100 GB of storage, with no per-file size cap.
- Video
- No upload size limit on any plan. MP4 with H.264 streams in the browser, with the viewer's watermark over the picture on Data Room.
- Enterprise controls
- SAML SSO with any identity provider, and anomaly alerts for impossible travel and suspicious networks.
- Security
- AES-256 at rest, TLS 1.2+ in transit. Peony staff can't open your documents, your documents aren't used to train AI, and Peony has had no data breach since launch. Peony's incident-response policy commits to telling affected customers within 72 hours of confirming an incident that affects customer data. SOC 2 Type II-ready and ISO 27001-ready, with both audits underway. Compliance and certifications
- Setup
- Median 4 min 19 s from sign-up to first uploaded document (State of M&A Data Rooms, Q3 2026 edition).
- Trial
- 7-day Data Room trial you start yourself: no credit card, and it never auto-charges. Rooms, files, links, analytics and NDA settings carry over when you upgrade. AI features switch on after you upgrade.
- Support
- 24/7 support, handled directly by the Peony team across Europe, US and Asia hours, with no outsourced tier. Everyone you speak to on Peony support has M&A experience at elite boutiques or bulge-bracket banks, VC experience, or has raised $1M+ themselves.
- Customers
- 8,000+ teams in 60+ countries, with $44.7B in client assets.
Why do game studios need a data room?
Studios share unreleased work with more outsiders than almost any other industry, and a shared drive can't show who passed it on.
Playtests leak
One participant with a phone can put your unannounced character on social media before marketing is ready. An NDA tells you what they promised, not who broke it.
Thousands of outsiders, one small team
A researcher and a security engineer can end up managing thousands of external emails, each needing access for days, not months.
Recordings are the sensitive files
Replays, session captures and vertical slices show the game itself. They often move through shared drives with no record of who watched what.
Pitches and deals need a paper trail
Publishers, investors and acquirers all want the game design document, budget and KPIs. You need to know who read them, and be able to cut access when talks end.
What do studios use Peony for?
Six jobs, from the first closed test to the sale of the studio.
Run a closed playtest
Import your participant list into an allow list, require email verification, and put an NDA in front of the content. Dynamic watermarks mark each viewer's copy, and link expiry closes access when the test ends.
Read the closed playtest guideReview replays and capture
Export replays to MP4 and stream them in the browser, with download controls per group, and see who opened each video.
See dynamic watermarksWatch for unusual access
On Enterprise, anomaly alerts email the link's creator when one viewer appears in two distant places within 60 minutes, or arrives through a VPN, Tor exit node, known proxy or hosting network.
See anomaly detectionPass your security review
SAML SSO with Okta, Azure AD or any identity provider on Enterprise, and Google or Microsoft sign-in on Deal Team, protect your own team. A workspace owner can require SAML SSO for every member.
See SSO optionsPitch publishers and investors
Give each publisher or fund its own tracked link to your deck, game design document and budget, and see which pages they read before the next call.
See fundraising data roomsSell the studio
Run diligence on IP chain of title, engine and platform agreements and live-ops KPIs in one room, with per-bidder permissions and a full audit trail.
Read the game studio M&A guideWhere does Peony fit in a playtest stack?
Keep the build on your distribution channel, and put everything around it in Peony. Steam says plainly that its playtests aren't under NDA by default, so the paperwork and recordings need a home of their own. Our closed playtest guide covers the full setup, including what your security team will ask.
| File | Where it lives | Control that matters |
|---|---|---|
| Game build | Steam Playtest, console channels or your launcher | Per-tester ID |
| NDA and consent | Peony | Signed NDA with a PDF for both parties |
| Playtest guides and known issues | Peony | Allow list and dynamic watermarks |
| Replays and session captures | Peony | Watermarked, view-only video |
| Reports for your publisher | Peony | View-only group per partner |
Which Peony plan does a game studio need?
Most studios need Data Room for watermarks and signed NDAs, and Enterprise when a security team wants anomaly alerts and SAML SSO. Viewers are always free, so a list of thousands of playtesters doesn't change the bill. See all pricing.
| Control | Starts on |
|---|---|
| Allow list and CSV import | Business, $30/admin/month |
| Screenshot protection and download prevention | Business, $30/admin/month |
| Video upload and video analytics | Business, $30/admin/month |
| Dynamic watermarks on pages and video | Data Room, $52/admin/month |
| Signed NDA with a PDF for both parties | Data Room, $52/admin/month |
| Screenshield and unlimited storage | Data Room, $52/admin/month |
| Google and Microsoft SSO | Deal Team, $64/admin/month, 4-admin minimum |
| Anomaly alerts | Enterprise, custom |
| SAML SSO with any identity provider | Enterprise, custom |
Frequently asked questions
What is Peony, and is it a good fit for game studios?
Yes. Peony is a virtual data room that game studios and publishers use to share playtest files under NDA, see who opened each file and trace leaks to a viewer. Data Room, the most popular plan, is $52 per admin per month billed yearly ($75 monthly), with unlimited rooms and storage; inviting playtesters is free and unlimited.
Which game studios use Peony?
Riot Games uses Peony for playtests, with thousands of external participants on one allow-listed link, SSO for its own team and anomaly alerts. More than 8,000 teams use Peony across fundraising, M&A and confidential sharing. If you run playtests, Data Room at $52/admin/month, billed yearly, covers most tests, and Enterprise adds SAML SSO and anomaly alerts.
We're running a closed playtest with 3,000 external players. Can Peony handle the list?
Yes. Riot Games runs playtests with thousands of external participants on a single Peony link. You import the list by CSV into the link's allow list, turn on email verification, and only listed addresses get past the gate. Then you send the one access link in your own playtest invite. Allow lists are on Business ($30/admin/month) and above.
Our team signs in with Okta. How do external playtesters get into a Peony room?
Through the link. Your admins and members use SSO on Enterprise, with Okta, Azure AD or any identity provider, and external playtesters enter through email verification, an allow list and an NDA gate. For a studio with 4 security and research admins, your identity provider protects the people who control the room, and the link settings protect everyone viewing it.
How do we find out who leaked playtest footage or a design document?
Start with the watermark. Peony's dynamic watermarks stamp each viewer's identity over every page and over video on the Data Room plan ($52/admin/month), so a leaked capture can point back to a recipient. Keep video groups view-only, because a downloaded video has no watermark. Then check that person's audit trail for what they opened and when. Treat a watermark as strong evidence alongside your NDA rather than as proof on its own.
A playtester's account was used from two countries in 20 minutes. Would Peony tell us?
Usually, yes, if anomaly alerts are on. On Enterprise, Peony compares a viewer's granted accesses across your workspace and emails the link's creator when two fall within 60 minutes from different countries or more than 500 km apart. It also flags access from VPNs, Tor exit nodes, known proxies and hosting networks. Alerts are best effort, so treat the audit trail as the record, and you decide whether to revoke access.
Can our QA team and publisher review gameplay replays inside a Peony data room?
Yes. Export replays or session captures to MP4 with H.264 and they stream in the browser, with the player's download control removed and the viewer's watermark on top on the Data Room plan. Analytics show who opened each video, and you can keep each group view-only. There's no upload size limit on any plan, and storage is 100 GB on Business and unlimited from Data Room.
Where should we keep the game build, and what belongs in Peony?
Keep the executable on Steam Playtest, your console test channels or your launcher, and use Peony for what travels around it: playtest guides, NDAs, known-issues lists, recorded sessions and reports for your publisher. Those files need viewer-level tracking. Note that Steam Playtest isn't confidential by default, so collect a signed NDA in Peony before you hand out keys.
Our security team requires SSO and a vendor review. What can Peony provide?
Peony offers SAML SSO with Okta, Azure AD or any identity provider on Enterprise, and Google and Microsoft sign-in on Deal Team, and a workspace owner can require SAML SSO for every member. On Deal Team and Enterprise, your reviewer also gets a DPA and security documentation. Peony is SOC 2 Type II-ready and ISO 27001-ready, with both audits underway, so ask for the audit timeline if your policy needs an issued report.
We're a 40-person studio pitching a publisher. Which Peony plan fits?
Peony Data Room at $52/admin/month fits most publisher pitches. It gives each publisher its own link or room with dynamic watermarks, a signed NDA and unlimited storage for your vertical-slice video, game design document and budget. Page-by-page analytics, included on every plan, show which publisher opened the milestone schedule and which stopped at the deck.
We're selling our studio. Can Peony run the due diligence data room?
Yes. M&A data rooms are Peony's core use. For a studio sale you organise IP chain of title, contractor assignments, engine and platform agreements and live-ops KPIs in one room, set permissions per bidder, and see which pages each buyer reads. Data Room ($52/admin/month) covers most sales; Deal Team ($64/admin/month, 4-admin minimum) adds Advanced Q&A and Advanced Redaction for processes with several bidders.
Can I try Peony before I pay?
Yes. Peony's Data Room plan has a 7-day free trial you start yourself, with no credit card, and it never converts to paid on its own. Rooms, files, links, analytics and NDA settings carry over when you upgrade. AI features, such as AI document Q&A and AI room generation, switch on once you're on a paid plan.