Latest News
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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Julia Larionova
PropellerAds Launches Paid Social Traffic, a New Way to Reach Social Media Audiences
Leading advertising platform PropellerAds has launched Paid Social Traffic, a standalone format that gives advertisers access to paid social media audiences from inside their existing accounts. The format makes audiences active on Facebook, Instagram, X and other social feeds available within the PropellerAds platform, with supply aggregated through its partners.
For years, advertisers chasing social audiences had to juggle separate ad accounts, learn the rules of each platform, and produce platform-specific creatives just to reach users scrolling their feeds. Paid Social Traffic strips that away. Advertisers pick the format in the campaign builder, point it at a landing page and the traffic flows in.
“Advertisers keep telling us that reaching quality social audiences at scale is complex and resource-heavy. We built Paid Social Traffic to make that audience accessible through a single PropellerAds campaign: no separate accounts, no complicated setup,” said Julia Larionova, Head of Marketing at PropellerAds.
The format sits as a dedicated tab in the SSP campaign creation flow, alongside Onclick, Push, Interactive Ads and Telegram Ads. No third-party integrations, no extra ad accounts, no fresh batch of creatives — a landing page is enough to launch.
The audiences come in with high engagement intent, and the supply is aggregated from PropellerAds’ partners and made available only through the platform, so advertisers aren’t competing for it elsewhere. For verticals such as iGaming and Finance, the format offers clear requirements and a streamlined onboarding, with the company’s standard ad quality guidelines and policy applying throughout.
At launch, the format is live across a set of high-volume markets, more countries are on the way.
The launch also clarifies how social traffic now works on the platform. Organic Social Traffic — audiences from bloggers, channels, and publisher-owned communities — stays inside Onclick. Paid Social Traffic is the new, separate lane: a dedicated paid source aggregated through PropellerAds’ partners. Both coexist, with a clean line between them.
Advertisers planning longer commitments have another option. Through Custom Collaboration, partners can build tailored campaigns for clients with dedicated promo budgets and serious scale ambitions — a route aimed at the platform’s larger advertisers.
To start, advertisers select Paid Social Traffic in their next campaign and add a landing page. The platform handles delivery from there.
The post PropellerAds Launches Paid Social Traffic, a New Way to Reach Social Media Audiences appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Bonusetu.com
Finland Sets Casino Gambling Risk Limits at 2% of Income, 4 Days, 2 Game Types
Finland’s National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) has launched a new set of gambling risk limits built around a single rule: no more than 2% of monthly net income, 4 gambling days per month and 2 recurring game types. Bonusetu.com examines the new framework and why its real-world success depends on the bank ID identification already standard in the country’s registration-free casinos.
The “2-4-2” Rule and the Player’s Credit Line
THL packaged the new limits as a player’s credit line (pelaajan luottorivi), a memorable “2-4-2” mnemonic released alongside a self-assessment gambling test (rahapelitesti) that lets a player gauge their own relationship with gambling. The thresholds are deliberately simple: keep monthly spend under 2% of net income, gamble on no more than 4 days a month, and stick to no more than 2 recurring game types. The guidance lands against a backdrop where 70% of Finns reported gambling in the past 12 months.
The numbers are not arbitrary. The framework adapts Canada’s Lower-Risk Gambling Guidelines, reworked for Finnish conditions between 2022 and 2024. Where Canada anchors its limit to 1% of gross household income, THL chose 2% of net personal income to better match how Finnish households actually think about money.
According to the THL’s assessment, the introduction of the licensing system will shift the focus of the gambling system from preventing and reducing harms to emphasising gambling revenue; for this reason, they felt it was best to launch the 2-4-2 rule right now.
“A risk limit only works if the casino knows exactly who is sitting behind the screen. THL hands players the 2-4-2 rule, but the rule has no teeth unless the operator can verify identity, age, and play history in real time. Bank ID does that at the door. Registration-free does not mean anonymous, it means the player is identified before the first euro is staked, not after,” said Tommi Korhonen, acting CEO of Bonusetu.com.
Why a Limit Needs to Know the Player
A spending cap is only as strong as a casino’s ability to recognise who is actually playing. That recognition runs on strong identification (vahva tunnistautuminen) through bank credentials, the technology that lets a player log in with Nordea, OP or S-Pankki details instead of filling out a signup form. The “no registration” label describes the missing form, not a missing identity check.
Verified age: Bank ID confirms a player is over 18 before the first spin, closing a gap that form-based signups leave open to minors.
Recognised identity: One verified identity per player turns play-history limits like 2-4-2 into something a system can enforce, not just a slogan a player is asked to remember.
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Helsinki, Bonusetu.com is a leading Finnish comparison platform for online casinos.
The post Finland Sets Casino Gambling Risk Limits at 2% of Income, 4 Days, 2 Game Types appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Latest News
Play’n GO Releases its Latest Slot Game “Shark Feast”
Play’n GO unveils Shark Feast, a neon-soaked underwater release starring Jawsome Joe, a theatrical shark who crashes the Neon Jellyfish Festival in a string of absurd disguises.
Shark Feast drops players into a world of self-aware humour, bright aquatic visuals and festival mayhem, where Jawsome Joe turns a seabed celebration into his own outrageous spectacle. Built around a 6-reel scatter pays setup with cascading action, the game leans into comic timing and visual personality rather than menace, presenting an underwater setting filled with oddball sea creatures, colourful symbols and a mischievous central character with a taste for disruption.
The game’s strongest appeal lies in how confidently it commits to its theme. Shark Feast is not simply set beneath the waves – it uses the Neon Jellyfish Festival as the backdrop for a playful clash between party atmosphere and cartoon chaos. Jawsome Joe’s disguises and the escalating festival mood give the release a distinct identity, while the different Free Spins modes – Jelly Fish Festival, Deep Sea Fiesta and Aqua Beat Carnival – reinforce the sense of a celebration that keeps building in scale and absurdity.
That makes Shark Feast a natural fit for players who enjoy Play’n GO titles with bold visual character and a strong comic thread running through the experience. Its underwater world feels light, colourful and intentionally exaggerated, combining festival energy with a shark protagonist who is more showman than predator. The result is a release that balances mischief and spectacle in a way that feels unmistakably Play’n GO.
Magnus Wallentin, Games Ambassador at Play’n GO, said: “Shark Feast gave us the chance to create something with a lot of personality – bright, strange and full of comic energy. Jawsome Joe brings a theatrical edge to the underwater setting, and that contrast helped shape a game world that feels lively from the very first moment.”
With Shark Feast, Play’n GO delivers an underwater release with humour, colour and a central character who knows exactly how to steal the show.
The post Play’n GO Releases its Latest Slot Game “Shark Feast” appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
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