Opera buys 2D game engine as browser maker considers in-game expansion

Opera Software is signaling it has some big, but mysterious ambitions in gaming. "GameMaker Studio 2 is a fantastic platform that allows anyone, [sic] from a high school student to a pro to create games and then export them from a single codebase to various platforms, including Desktop, Mobile, Web [,] and Consoles". This browser features "countless customization options, sound effects, background music, a gaming-inspired design, as well as CPU, RAM and Network Bandwidth limiters", Opera says, noting that "GX is less resource-hungry and leaves more of the computer's resources for gaming". It's also possible the browser could end up hosting HTML5 games made with the studio product. The browser and the world of gaming would mix even more, it seems, with the company explained in a statement that it's founding Opera Gaming, a new division whose role is to expand the browser's capabilities into the world of gaming. The browser is also tightly integrated with the gaming chat service Discord and the live-streaming platform Twitch.

Opera - as in, the people behind that web browser you might've used years ago - is in the gaming industry spotlight this week.

Introduced in 2019, Opera GX was not created to stream or run games, but to ensure that the browser never gets in the way of slowing down your PC experience.

For now, the company isn't specifically revealing how it'll use the GameMaker Studio 2 acquisition. "One that we believe will unlock many exciting possibilities for developers and educators".

Stuart Poole, GM at YoYo Games 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". According to Opera Gaming, the GameMaker engine "achieved 400K new registered creators in 2020".