When we talk of browsers, the first thing that comes to mind are things like Edge, Safari and Chrome. The problem is that these browsers are just that—things that translate HTML into images, texts and videos. They allow you to play new slots, but they do not offer anything else.
Until Opera did something about it. Opera is a browser—one that we can consider a pioneer in mobile browser technology. It was the browser in the early smartphones that Nokia distributed in its heydays. Now, Opera released the first-ever mobile browser which they aptly dubbed Opera GX Mobile. This browser is exclusively designed for gamers.
What is the Opera GX Browser?
The Opera GX Browser is a desktop browser, but for games. Opera released the first version for desktop. It is specifically designed to run “inside” the game. It is not like Google Chrome where you access the internet and play the games from the browser. It is the other way around.
In short, this is not a browser that you use to surf the internet to find games. It is something you use for PC games that require too much power. Pretty much, a gamer knows that the PC is going through some serious difficulties for AAA games. As such, one needs software that will control the power usage of Triple-A games.
This is where the Opera GX browser comes in. It is a RAM delimiter. When the desktop version got released, there was a huge demand from players worldwide for a mobile version. It is this demand that pushed the company to release a mobile gaming browser recently.
Features of the Opera GX Browser
The one thing that you will use this for is to control your power usage. With the browser, you can use what is called the GX Control. The GX Control is something you will find in the sidebar. Click it, and a new panel will open for you. This panel will show you the RAM Limiter and CPU Limiter. With it, you can set a limit to how much power the browser can use.
For example, you can tell it to use a maximum of only 3GB of your RAM. You can also limit the CPU resources to, say, 10% only. The result is that your game is not going to crash because of the browser. The browser may be slower, but you no longer have to manually close browser tabs just to free up gaming resources.
On desktop, MAC and Windows are supposed to manage your resources automatically. However, it is not enough. The default is that the browser should not get in the way of gaming. The problem is that it does not always work. Because of this dependability issue, many gamers close their browsers while gaming. The browser eats up a lot of resources—resources that make the game slow.
Now, the GX Opera will manage the power usage for you. Again, it only controls the power consumption of the browser itself, not the game. Opera’s Maciej Kocemba said that the browser was a common problem with gamers. If you are a gamer, you know that you need the internet as a guide. You will definitely have to research online to get some solutions to problems you see in the game.
For example, you may want to watch a YouTube tutorial while gaming. Ideally, you will do this on separate devices, like playing on PS3 but surfing the net on your mobile or desktop device. What if you only had one device?
This is what the Opera company saw as an opportunity. Although they first saw it fit the PC gamers, they eventually realized that there were many gamers whose only device was a mobile phone or tablet. Opera GX now helps gamers play their favourite games on their phones while keeping the browser open. All they have to do now is to shift between these two apps if they want to see cheats or guides from the internet.
Summary
Opera Limited is into something big here—they have tapped into a growing market that no one else has thought of before. Many companies focus on creating games or new gadgets like VR devices. However, Opera knows better than this. The future of desktop and mobile gaming with browsers is going to change. This is most especially so for mobile devices because they have the capacity to deliver haptic feedback.
What could be next, a modern gaming browser for wearable devices?