Opera browser obtained rights of Scotland-based British company YoYo Games for $10 million to establish their gaming section on January 20th, 2021.
Developed by Opera Software, the Opera browser has bought rights of YoYo Games. Opera, which has a user base of 80 million monthly active users (MAUs), is experiencing a year-to-year growth of 20%. This acquisition marks the formation of Opera Gaming division which will be focusing on new opportunities for Opera in the gaming industry.
YoYo Games is best known for developing the newest iteration GameMaker Studio 2, the first gaming browser in the world and one of the most popular engines to develop games. The GameMaker Studio enables developers to create 2D games on various platforms such as Android, Windows, PS4 and Xbox One. YoYo Games stated that ‘the GameMaker Studio 2 is used to teach game design to students in more than 2000 institutions.’
Launched in 2019, the Opera GX gaming browser reached 7 million monthly active users (MAUs) in December 2020, more than tripling previous year’s entries. Opera GX was created to run and stream games. The gaming browser will free-up the space on PC by limiting data used by network, RAM and CPU, to provide a better gaming experience. PC users of Opera have almost doubled since last 3 years as it has provided unique browsing experience on PC. Now, the integration between Opera GX and GameMaker Studio can be expected as both the companies have merged.
In 2018, YoYo Game tried to expand its business by introducing a game publishing division, but that division was shut down in the same year. The collaboration of these companies has assembled GameMaker, Opera GX and YoYo Games together, that will lay down a solid foundation for Opera Gaming Division.
