Opera, a maker of web browsers, acquired YoYo Games, maker of the GameMaker Studio 2 game engine, for $ 10 million, and also launched its Opera gaming division.
The agreement highlights Opera’s efforts to differentiate its browser, Opera GX, through a gaming community. Opera itself has more than 380 million people using its browsers worldwide. Its new Opera GX game browser had seven million active users per month in December, an increase of 350% over the previous year.
Opera Gaming will focus on expanding Opera’s capabilities and monetizing opportunities in games, Krystian Kolondra said in an interview with GamesBeat. The publicly traded Opera is based in Oslo, Norway, while YoYo Games is based in Dundee, Scotland.
“A few years ago, we made the decision to produce innovation and not have to compete with the mass market for browsers,” said Kolondra. She is the executive vice president of browsers at Opera. “We focus on some segments that are really growing and are significant. So we decided to go after games. “
GameMaker Studio 2 has found its niche as a tool for making 2D games, and is being used by people who have very little training in skills like programming. Kolondra said the technology has reached a point where people are becoming as interested in making their own games as they are in playing them. Opera also has a built-in cryptocurrency wallet.
YoYo Games had more than 400,000 new users registered in 2020.
Above: GameMaker Studio 2
Image credit: YoYo Games
“This lowers the entry barrier for anyone to start playing games,” said Kolondra.
The games can be played on a wide variety of web-supported platforms, including PCs, iOS / Android mobile devices and consoles.
YoYo Games general manager Stuart Poole will remain with the business alongside technical leader Russell Kay. YoYo Games has worked on the GameMaker engine for years, and it has been downloaded more than 10 million times since 2012.
Opera launched the Opera GX game browser in 2019. It features customization options, sound effects, background music, a game-inspired design, as well as CPU, memory and network bandwidth limiters that make the browser less user-friendly. resources.
Some of the big hits made with GameMaker include Risk of Rain, Undertale and Hyper Light Drifter. These games have sold millions of copies. Kolondra said the company does not plan to make exclusive games that run only with the Opera GX browser, as the goal is to create a community around Opera GX users, but also to make GameMaker Pro 2 available to those who want to make multiplatform games. .
Kolondra said that good browser performance is essential even for 2D games, and sustaining that performance on mobile devices and laptops, as well as variable bandwidth and connectivity, requires thinking outside the traditional application silos. The line between building good games and good browsers has been eroding for years – with the interactivity of games on internet connections increasing and browsers increasingly multifunctional and sophisticated, he said.
Opera GX has received good reviews from players who don’t want to sacrifice performance just for having a browser running, said Kolondra. He has over a million reviews to date.
“For us, the game is more like a community now,” said Kolondra. “This will accelerate our growth, as it will be a unique value proposition. GameMaker Studio makes it easy for people to create games. “
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