There was a need for the deployment of the Unreal Engine server (v5.1.1) to start it as a windows service on win10.
An attempt to package it through the regular Windows service tool (sc create...) resulted in the UE process being started (it can be observed in the task manager), however, the service launch is not successful and crashes with error 1053 the service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.
I must say right away that increasing the timeout in the register does not help.
The second point, packaging through the nssm utility is successful. However, nssm replaces the exe file in the service with its own, and this is undesirable for us.
What can be the reason for the unsuccessful launch after using sc, and how it can be fixed?
As you have experienced, SC will happily install any executable file as a service. However, that executable will only start if it is a "true" Windows Service — one that includes code to integrate with the Windows Services Manager (SCM).
Since Unreal Engine server is not a Windows Service, any attempt to start your service will always generate Error 1053.
There is no way to fix that failure without using a service wrapper. If NSSM isn't working for you, Microsoft Srvany (basic but functional) and WinSW are other free options that may do the trick.