Nightflyer and Rocket take software offline

Some of the best games are not live services. A single-player campaign, an indie adventure, simulator &emdash; players don't want to stop playing the second they board a flight or their internet cuts out. If anything, that's exactly the kind of time your customers need your software to work.

Always-online licensing, historically System Locker's forte, works best when your product already requires the internet. We recognize that thousands of developers sell software that doesn't fit this model, however. Nightflyer is our answer: it's a secure authorization API for software that needs to keep working offline. Perfect for single-player games and applications that do not require a constant connection or multiplayer session, Nightflyer secures your code, even in the darkness.

In our quest for a better developer experience, we also recognized a strong desire for a more flexible subscription model. Built for developers who expect rapid growth, Rocket pairs access to the Nightflyer API with soft user limits, plus the management and security tools needed to run an offline-first software business.

Players gonna play.

Licensing has to protect your work, but it also has to respect the customer who paid for it. Not having WiFi should not invoke the same consequences as piracy, and travel should not need advance permission. If your game does not need a constant connection to play, it should not require one to auth.

Nightflyer separates the online decision from everyday offline play. The installation checks in while it has a connection, proves the license is valid, and receives a signed lease. Your game can then verify that lease locally without asking our servers for permission every time it opens.

Authorization that keeps flying offline

You choose how long your software can stay offline: we let you choose anywhere from 20 minutes to 90 days. Nightflyer never issues access beyond the license's own expiry, and your application can request a shorter window when a particular feature or release needs tighter control.

Every lease knows its next renewal time. When a connection is available, your application renews and receives a fresh lease after System Locker checks the license rules again. When the network is unavailable, the current signed lease remains usable until its deadline. The customer gets continuity without receiving permanent access.

Nightflyer works with both key-only and account-based licensing. It keeps the policies you already expect from auth services: version requirements, Program Hash checks, license expiry, hardware bans, and frozen keys—while allowing that authorization to persist for much longer periods.

Offline does not have to mean uncontrolled

A local “licensed” flag is easy to copy or edit. A Nightflyer lease is different. System Locker signs it, and the lease is bound to both the installation's own device-held key and its SL-HWID value. Copying the lease file to another computer does not copy the authority required to use it. Changing its expiry or device details breaks the signature.

When an installation reconnects, it picks up current status and policy changes before receiving more time. You can review active leases in System Management, unbind one device, or end access when a customer deliberately changes licenses.

There is one unavoidable rule of offline licensing: a device that cannot hear from the server cannot receive a new revocation notice. That means that your maximum offline window is also the longest an already authorized installation may continue accessing your software, no matter what. But, that's also why Nightflyer lets you choose that window.

Meet Rocket, our offline-first plan

Nightflyer is available with paid production authentication. Rocket is for developers whose product and business are designed around offline usage: it includes Simple Auth and Nightflyer instead of Bedrock's always-connected session model, keeping the authentication choices focused on software that cannot assume a continuous connection.

Rocket starts with allowances of 5,000 monthly users and 50,000 total users. If a release suddenly breaks through that soft ceiling, a 14-day flex window gives you time to react instead of shutting new customers out at the most important moment. The hard ceiling sits at 500,000 users.

The plan also includes all non-Bedrock features from the other subscriptions: authentication logs, the Management API, reseller and admin panels, 200 variables per system, and offline-optimized Aegis detection.

Choose the model your product actually needs

If your software is always connected and benefits from a live, rotating session, choose Bedrock and one of our other subscriptions. But, if your customer is paying for offline functionality, choose Nightflyer. And if you are planning an offline-first launch with the potential to move quickly, Rocket gives it room to take off.

The right licensing model should disappear into a good customer experience. It should be strict enough to protect your interests and quiet the rest of the time. System Locker's Nightflyer and Rocket were designed to deliver those benefits to more developers than ever before.

Join us on a flight away from the internet.

Choose Rocket to support your viral launch, or start by reading the Nightflyer overview before you start your integration.

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