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Opera buys owner of GameMaker and starts a Gaming division
Opera, the browser developer and consumer internet brand, 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.”
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Behind the Game Anatomy of a Strong Brand
At iGaming, dozens of solutions are behind the high conversion, retention, and LTV rates of the product: from UX and payment infrastructure to personalisation and constant hypothesis testing.
Behind the Game is a series of expert materials where N1 Partners team explains how successful iGaming products work from the inside.
In this issue, N1 Partners’ Product Line Manager will tell you how to identify a promising brand at the start, what distinguishes a strong product from an average one, and how to choose offers with maximum potential.
What distinguishes a strong iGaming product from dozens of similar offers in the market today?
Today, many products are focused on the rapid monetisation of the player. A strong product has a different approach: it is built around long-term value, player loyalty, and audience retention.
Personalisation, usability, and the ability of a product to adapt to the interests of a particular user play a key role.
Modern analytics and AI tools allow you to predict user behaviour more accurately, offer relevant mechanics, and create a more personalised gaming experience.
UX is equally important. In Tier-1 GEOs, even minor inconveniences can cost a player. If the user has to perform unnecessary actions or encounter an inconvenient interface, the probability that he’ll leave increases significantly.
What early signs show that a product has the potential to become a strong brand?
From the product’s point of view, two metrics are crucial: conversion and retention.
If a product consistently shows good player engagement rates and at the same time keeps the audience at or above market benchmarks, this is a strong signal of its potential.
An additional indicator is the team’s ability to regularly test new hypotheses and implement mechanics that expand the possibilities of interaction with the audience.
Practical criteria are also important for partners: the availability of in-demand payment methods for a specific GEO, high-quality localisation, a strong game library and a convenient user path.
A separate recommendation for affiliate teams is to independently walk the player’s path before launching traffic. This allows you to quickly identify the strengths and weaknesses of the product before scaling.
What is more important for long-term growth: constantly attracting new players or working with the existing base?
One cannot exist without the other.
Attracting new players remains a prerequisite for growth, but without strong retention and working with a loyal base, the product will not be able to show stable results over the long run. That is why the N1 Partners products have a high retention and players’ LTV, those are really crucial metrics to pay attention to.
A high churn leads to a situation where the operator constantly compensates for losses due to new traffic. This model becomes unprofitable both for the product itself and for partners working on RevShare.
That’s why long-term growth is built around retaining players and building a loyal audience that keeps coming back to the product.
What mistakes do new casino projects most often make in the early years of their work?
Many new projects begin to actively increase traffic even before they are convinced of the product effectiveness on test volumes.
Before opening large amounts of traffic, it is important to make sure that all key processes are working correctly: funnels, retention mechanics, payment infrastructure and user path.
Many problems arise due to flaws from the product’s side itself. Errors in payments, incorrect localisation, problems with the availability of functions or an inconvenient interface quickly affect conversion and retention.
For the player, such shortcomings become the reason for leaving even before he has time to get acquainted with the product.
How do you know that a player is returning because of the product itself and not just bonuses or individual games?
One of the key factors is emotional attachment to the product and the level of personalisation.
Bonuses can attract attention, but long-term loyalty is shaped by familiar mechanics, individualised interaction and high-quality communication with the user. This is especially noticeable in the VIP segment, where personal support, attention to the player and long-term relationships are of great importance.
A strong product is always based on treating players as people, not as a set of numbers in reports.
What metrics best show that a product will be successful at a distance?
Among the main indicators:
- repeated deposits;
- deposit funnel depth;
- Retention Rate;
- Churn Rate;
- technical stability of the product;
- key scenarios’ speed.
Special attention is paid to the transitions between deposits and the product’s ability to return players a week, a month or more after the first deposit.
How are the expectations of the players changing in 2026, and what is already considered a mandatory brand standard today?
A mandatory standard is perfect GEO localization, the most user-friendly interface, as well as brand reputation.
Another underestimated factor is the brand’s reputation. Products need to actively work with ORM (Online Reputation Management): monitor the brand’s reputation on feedback (for example, Trustpilot) and third-party sites and respond to comments and questions from players, forming loyalty.
N1 Partners pays special attention to this: the company systematically works with feedback from partners and players, maintaining the brand’s reputation on thematic websites.
What helps N1 Partners products stay competitive in Tier-1 GEOs?
Constant testing of new mechanics and flexibility in product development remains one of the factors.
N1 Partners team adheres to an approach in which new solutions are first tested under controlled conditions and only implemented on a larger scale after effectiveness confirmation.
Among the mechanics that have shown a good effect are Lucky Spin/LuckyBox, Puzzle Hunt and a number of other gamification solutions aimed at increasing player engagement and retention.
Deep audience segmentation and the development of specialised retention areas for different groups of players also play an important role.
If you had to choose a product for RevShare, which indicators would you look at first?
First of all, it is worth paying attention to:
- player retention;
- user path quality;
- the presence of errors and technical problems;
- payment infrastructure;
- the range of games;
- indicators of repeated deposits.
In the RevShare model, the key is how long a player remains active and how often they return to deposits.
What do partners most often underestimate when choosing a product to drive traffic?
Partners often start scaling a new product too early.
Even with a strong offer and good terms of cooperation, it is crucial to first check the actual performance of the product and only then proceed to scaling.
Another underestimated factor is the brand’s reputation. Before driving traffic to an offer, it is important to check player reviews, ratings on relevant sites, and the general perception of the product on the market.
If you had to launch a new brand from scratch today, which three things would you focus on first?
First of all, attention should be paid to three fundamental elements:
- a strong payment infrastructure for chosen GEO;
- a high-quality set of gaming providers and content;
- technical stability of the product and an optimized user path.
Even minor problems with download speed, payments, or registration can significantly reduce conversion and affect the further growth of the product.
The effectiveness of all subsequent marketing and product initiatives directly depends on the quality of these components.
To summarise, a strong iGaming product begins where the pursuit of short-term results ends. Attention to user experience, audience retention, localisation, and continuous product improvements allows brands to grow from a distance and turn the attracted traffic into long-term value.
If you are looking for brands with high LTV and Reg2Dep, join N1 Partners, a multi-brand affiliate program with 14+ casinos and betting brands in Tier-1 GEO with payouts up to €700 CPA and RevShare up to 55%.
Be number one with N1!
Casino Content
PopOK Gaming secures Argentina certification to supply iGaming content
Approval clears the supplier to distribute certified slots and instant games to licensed operators in Argentina.
PopOK Gaming has obtained certification for the Argentinian market, allowing the supplier to offer its certified gaming content to licensed operators in Argentina.
The company said the approval enables it to provide a portfolio of certified content in the country, positioning it to support local operators with slots and instant games that meet regulatory and technical requirements.
PopOK Gaming framed the certification as part of its broader push into regulated jurisdictions, with a focus on compliance and product standards. The company did not disclose which certifying body issued the approval, the scope of the certification, or a timeline for operator launches.
Argentina has become a key Latin American iGaming market, with regulation and licensing typically handled at the provincial level. PopOK Gaming said it expects further expansion initiatives as it continues to invest in regulatory compliance and international growth.
The post PopOK Gaming secures Argentina certification to supply iGaming content appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Argentinian market
PopOK Gaming Strengthens Latin American Expansion with Argentina Certification
PopOK Gaming has announced that it has successfully obtained certification for the Argentinian market, marking another milestone in the company’s continued expansion across regulated gaming jurisdictions.
The certification enables PopOK Gaming to provide its portfolio of certified gaming content to licensed operators in Argentina, reinforcing its commitment to delivering compliant, high-quality entertainment in regulated markets worldwide.
Argentina continues to emerge as one of Latin America’s most dynamic iGaming regions, with a growing demand for innovative and engaging casino content. By meeting the market’s regulatory and technical requirements, PopOK Gaming is well-positioned to support operators with a diverse selection of slot and instant games designed to appeal to a broad player audience.
The latest certification reflects the company’s long-term strategy of expanding its international footprint while maintaining high standards of compliance, product quality, and responsible growth. As regulated markets continue to shape the future of the iGaming industry, certifications remain a key component of sustainable market development and operator confidence.
With an expanding portfolio featuring immersive gameplay, engaging mechanics, and modern game design, PopOK Gaming continues to strengthen its position as a trusted content provider for regulated operators around the world.
The Argentina certification follows the company’s ongoing efforts to broaden its presence in strategic markets, with further expansion initiatives expected as PopOK Gaming continues to invest in regulatory compliance and global growth.
The post PopOK Gaming Strengthens Latin American Expansion with Argentina Certification appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
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