Retro Rush

What is Retro Rush?

Christofidou also floated the idea of issuing GMI recipients with a special card for in-person verification at gambling venues, but several MPs warned this could stigmatise welfare recipients.

Current gambling legislation restricts participation for minors and those classified as “financially vulnerable”. However, GMI recipients are not yet formally classified as such for the purpose of these regulations.

The NBA has operated a online self-exclusion scheme since 2024. It requires users to register with a mobile number, email address and ID. Since around 80% of gambling in Cyprus happens online, this route offers a far easier way to identify and exclude claimants than monitoring anonymous betting at physical outlets.

What is Retro Rush?

For Yggdrasil, Game in a Box and Studio in a Box are therefore intended to become more than tools for its own development operation. Curwen envisages them supporting a wider creator ecosystem, although he acknowledges that proving the model commercially must come first.

“We’re still early,” he says. “The priority is to prove the model properly; make sure the games perform and demonstrate that it works commercially. If we do that, I think the opportunity is significant.”

Five years from now, Curwen expects the development landscape – and the studios operating within it – to look markedly different.

About Retro Rush

The report was commissioned by Evolution and was recently unsealed in the ongoing case. Evolution had tried to delay the report’s release, citing confidential and commercial sensitivity.

The case, which dates back to November 2021, was filed by Evolution against Black Cube, after the intelligence firm was found to have been secretly investigating Evolution’s activities from December 2020.

Playtech commissioned Black Cube’s investigation, which Evolution has described as a “smear campaign” involving secretly recorded interviews with staff members.