"Game and multimedia software company Playtech said Monday it will acquire Yoyo Games Limited, developer of the popular cross-platform game dev tool GameMaker Studio."
"Playtech said it would buy Yoyo for $16.4 million, with a possible additional $5.25 million paid out."Sources:http://www.develop-online.net/opinions/playtech-buys-gamemaker-creator-yoyo-games-for-10m/0203202http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/236574/GameMaker_Studio_creator_acquired_for_164_million.phpNever heard of PlayTech. Does anyone see this being beneficial to Game Maker or not?
ugh fuck this
just when i got used to the last evil corporationI never saw YYG as evil, just rather bumbling and unsure of what they actually wanted to do with GM. I'm sure we all remember how Sandy wanted to make YYG the "Youtube of games" and focus on making GM easier to use until he realised children don't have money to spend on game development tools. And I for one don't begrudge YYG its prices – business has got to make money, and if those prices are what make business sense, fine. I was never about to drop $300 on the friggin' compiler (though I imagine some must have for YYG to justify charging that), but I did purchase Pro on a special and the Android module.
Playtech, however, are absolutely an evil corporation. I have real moral difficulty with giving money to a company whose main income derives from exploiting human weakness. I am not going to be purchasing any further versions or modules of GameMaker Studio. I still think the program is an excellent 2D rapid prototyping tool, but I can't continue to support its development – development which will probably be focused in the direction of microtransactions and suchlike now that online gambling's at the reins.I had a hunch that YYG might have been actually turning a profit since GMS, but this seems to indicate otherwise. I get the feeling Sandy and co. just got tired of haemorrhaging money and took the first purchase offer that came along. I can sympathise with that, but I really don't like the outcome.This killed many great games, many great products. It killed my favorite game. So I started to make my own games with GameMaker and here goes again. Why does everything I love gets sold?!
And if anyone thinks that "Maybe it's not that bad" let me give an example…"We don't want players to be able to buy their way to success. If we let players start doing this, it devalues game for others. We feel your status in real-life shouldn't affect your ability to be successful in game." After being sold:"Only 4.99$!":/Hopefully they'll sell it to someone else
$16m sounds like a lot of money but for a company it seems like a low sell. I'd rate it a 'meh'.
It doesnt sound beneficial, but YYG didnt have the best strategy either so I'm guessing that they are going to make it more fitting to their kind of model of simple online games, which is closer to what game maker was and is, but of course I am pretty sure they will be trying to come up with some sort of fee scheme to make a percentage off of any successful games.Maybe it's a funding situation. YYG is owned by Playtech but may still continue their development as planned. This time with more funds backing them up?
I think that is very optimistic
A slight bit of irony: GM's eula explicitly disallows the creation of gambling games with it.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/236677/With_GameMaker_under_new_ownership_some_devs_have_longterm_concern.php
http://www.gamingintelligence.com/business/30517-playtech-ceo-unveils-aggressive-casual-games-strategy