Well the API is ten times more simple than AWS … see for yourself: https://developers.digitalocean.com/
I am able to spin up pre-made instances through my Game Flow system by using their APIs and I only get charged for the time the image is up and running (minimum 1 hour). It is also easier for me to develop for their systems, because they run standard Linux images, so I created a Virtual Box image of the same specifications, make sure my game runs, and then I am guaranteed that it will run on their services.
Currently Kaboom Arena is designed to run 8 players networked, I am actually successfully running this off a $5.00 server … although I prefer to get a $20.00 server and run 3 or 4 instances off there instead.
I have done some preliminary tests with FPS games and I can get a 16 player server running quite effectively on a $10.00 server … I could push this up to 32 players on a $20.00 server. Obviously I need to run more tests, but this is in essence what my initial testing has proven.