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- [Tuck-In] Acquisition forms the basis for Opera Gaming, a new division focused on expanding Opera’s capabilities and monetization opportunities in the gaming space
- Deal unites Opera GX, world’s first gaming browser and popular game development engine, GameMaker
- Opera GX hit 7 million MAUs in December 2020, up nearly 350% year-over-year
Dundee, Scotland and Oslo, Norway – Opera (NASDAQ: OPRA), the browser developer and consumer internet brand, today announced its acquisition of YoYo Games, creator of the world’s leading 2D game engine, GameMaker Studio 2, for approximately $10 million. The tuck-in acquisition represents the second building block in the foundation of Opera Gaming, a new division within Opera with global ambitions and follows the creation and rapid growth of Opera’s innovative Opera GX browser, the world’s first browser built specifically for gamers.
Krystian Kolondra, EVP Browsers at Opera, said: “With Opera GX, Opera had adapted its proven, innovative browser tech platform to dramatically expand its footprint in gaming. We’re at the brink of a shift, when more and more people start not only playing, but also creating and publishing games. GameMaker Studio2 is best-in-class game development software, and lowers the barrier to entry for anyone to start making their games and offer them across a wide range of web-supported platforms, from PCs, to, mobile iOS/Android devices, to consoles.
Annette De Freitas, Head of Business Development & Strategic Partnerships, Opera Gaming, added: “Gaming is a growth area for Opera and the acquisition of YoYo Games reflects significant, sustained momentum across both of our businesses over the past year. Our new Opera GX browser hit 7 million MAUs in December, 2020, up 350% year over year, while YoYo Games’ GameMaker engine achieved 400K new registered creators in 2020. We’re tremendously excited by the opportunities the combination creates not only for our combined users, but also for the expansion of Opera’s gaming community.”
Stuart Poole, GM at YoYo Games who will remain with the business alongside technical lead Russell Kay stated, “For over twenty years, the vision behind the GameMaker engine was to not just create more games, but expand development within and beyond the game studio. We think the transaction with Opera – whose products are known, trusted and used worldwide by millions of people every month- represents a massive opportunity to accelerate fulfilment of that founding vision, during a period of exceptional growth for both companies.”
“We are very excited to start working with the team at YoYo Games,” said Krystian Kolondra, EVP Browsers at Opera. “We see the Game Maker Studio platform as being an ideal acquisition to complement our global ambitions in gaming, and to help drive awareness and traffic to our Opera GX gaming browser.”
Opera GX, YoYo Games and GameMaker will unite under Opera Gaming, focusing on innovating across the gaming, game development, and browser experience. “We look forward to further growing Opera GX and driving the growth of GameMaker as part of a broader ecosystem, making it more accessible to novice users and developing it into the world’s leading 2D game engine used by commercial studios,” continued Krystian Kolondra. “Opera Gaming will be focusing on accelerating the growth of this emerging ecosystem, combining the 7+ million highly engaged gamers using Opera GX with millions of GameMaker creators. We are also thrilled to continue realizing synergies between YoYo Games’ products and Opera GX.”
GameMakerStudio is an integrated game development software, performance-tuned 2/2.5D engine that fuels many games, including multi-million hits like Risk of Rain, Undertale, or Hyper Light Drifter on an extensive range of mainstream platforms. Starting to build games with Game Maker Studio requires little to zero coding skills. Due to its extensive functionalities and ease of use Game Maker Studio lowers the barriers to entry and empowers a variety of creative people to make their games come alive and share them with the world.
Kolondra explained further: “Performance is essential to even 2D gaming, and sustaining that performance across mobile devices and laptops as well as variable bandwidth and connectivity requires thinking outside of traditional application silos. The line between building good games and good browsers has been eroding for years – with gaming interactivity across internet connections ramping up and browsers growing more multi-function and sophisticated. Traditionally the two types of technology compete for hardware and bandwidth resources. But as Opera GX proved, there was a better way to address that competition and improve the experience across both functionalities. YoYo Games’ team, development expertise and studio relationships lay the groundwork for turning the Opera GX vertical into a new kind of horizontal. This horizontal opportunity is why we’re building Opera Gaming and its infrastructure – so that we can further integrate gaming and browsing in ways beneficial to both in terms of not only monetization, but also experience.”
About Opera and Opera GX
Opera is a global web innovator. Opera’s browsers, news products and fintech solutions are the trusted choice of more than 380 million people worldwide. Opera’s PC browser has surpassed 80 M MAUs. Opera is headquartered in Oslo, Norway and listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange (OPRA). https://opera.com
In 2019 Opera launched Opera GX, a browser built for gamers with features that include countless customization options, sound effects, background music, a gaming-inspired design, as well as CPU, RAM and Network Bandwidth limiters that make the browser less resource-hungry and leave more of the computer’s resources for gaming. Opera GX has seen tremendous growth over the past year with a user base of more than 7 million highly engaged monthly active gamers. Opera GX’s user base grew 350% between 2019 and December 2020 and it continues to grow at a fast pace. Opera GX continues to receive high ratings (4.84 out of 5.0). It also recently launched Discord server which quickly became number one in the Science & Tech community with more than 240K members.
About YoYo Games
YoYo Games is the home of GameMaker, the fastest and friendliest cross-platform game development technology out there. GameMaker Studio 2 has been completely redeveloped with usability and efficiency at its core, allowing developers to create games within a single code base and then publish them to run natively across multiple platforms including Android, iOS, HTML5, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows Desktop, OS X, Ubuntu, Windows UWP.
The GameMaker Studio family of products has been downloaded more than 10 million times since 2012. YoYo Games is based in Dundee, Scotland. www.yoyogames.com
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Web browser maker Opera has acquired YoYo Games, the maker of the GameMaker Studio 2 game engine, for $10 million, and it has also launched its Opera Gaming division.
The deal underscores Opera‘s efforts to differentiate its web browser, Opera GX, through a gaming community. Opera itself has more than 380 million people using its web browsers worldwide. Its new Opera GX gaming browser has seven million monthly active users as of December, up 350% from a year earlier.
Opera Gaming will focus on expanding Opera’s capabilities and monetization opportunities in the gaming, said Krystian Kolondra in an interview with GamesBeat. Publicly traded Opera is based in Oslo, Norway, while YoYo Games is based in Dundee, Scotland.
Opera Browser
“A couple years ago, we made the decision to produce innovation and not have to compete with mass market in browsers,” Kolondra said. She is Opera’s executive vice president of browsers. “We focus on some segments that actually grow and are meaningful. So we decided to go after gaming.”
GameMaker Studio 2 found its niche as a tool for making 2D games, and it’s being used by people who have very little training in skills such as programming. Kolondra said the tech has hit a point where people are becoming just as interested in making their own games as playing them. Opera also has a built-in cryptocurrency wallet.
YoYo Games had more than 400,000 new registered users in 2020.
Above: GameMaker Studio 2
“It lowers the barrier to entry for anyone to start making their games,” Kolondra said.
The games can run across a wide range of web-supported platforms including PCs, mobile iOS/Android devices, and consoles.
YoYo Games general manager Stuart Poole will remain with the business alongside technical lead 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 gaming browser in 2019. It features customization options, sound effects, background music, a gaming-inspired design, as well as CPU, memory, and network bandwidth limiters that make the browser less resource-hungry .
Some of the big hits made with GameMaker include Risk of Rain, Undertale, and Hyper Light Drifter. Those 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 make GameMaker Pro 2 available to those who want to make cross-platform games.
Opera Gx Ios 13
Kolondra said that good browser performance is essential to even 2D gaming, and sustaining that performance across mobile devices and laptops as well as variable bandwidth and connectivity requires thinking outside of traditional application silos. The line between building good games and good browsers has been eroding for years — with gaming interactivity across internet connections ramping up and browsers growing more multi-function and sophisticated, he said.
Opera GX has been getting good reviews from players who don’t want to sacrifice performance just by having a web browser running, Kolondra said. It has more than a million ratings to date.
Opera Gx Ios
“For us, gaming is more like a community now,” Kolondra said. “This is going to accelerate our growth as it will be a very unique value proposition. GameMaker Studio makes it easy for people to create games.”
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Opera Gx Ios 13
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