GameMaker has just been sold to a gambling company

And to think it used to be this little free program that made the indie game scene possible.

Granted, they are working to diversify, but I’m left to wonder if a casino company is the best fit (and at the price, it probably would’ve been better if they just sold to the guys that make Unity)?

Too early for speculation right now, thoughts?

Reactions so far are mixed, here are two more detailed news articles on the acquisition.


If the worst of the outcomes do come to pass, it will be the end of an engine with a long 15 year history as the go-to solution for 2D game creation (which I would find somewhat depressing, as I have made over 20 games with it before I moved over to Blender).

That sucks, but you can’t blame the guy. millions of dollars is a lot of money to turn down.

Somone needs to make a very easy to use sprite sheet generator for the game engine, and that the sheets are easily exported to godot, and Ue4 and ??? ( who uses sprites the most?)

I am biased, but I think that bge + steam as a community could do well.

Sell more games -> make better engine -> sell more games -> make better engine.

with people donating a flat % to development. as a choice.

People that see that alot is going to engine development may be more inclined to buy a game…

Mark Overmars has not been involved in its development or the community for years now, he sold it to a Scottish company named YoYo Games which then has just sold to Playtech.

Ashes… to ashes. Frees up a slot for a newcomer.

Using GM for a friend’s project at the moment…and this is one of the reasons I prefer to make my programs with as least reliance on additional engines/apis as possible. If its not bugs outside of your control, then it may very well be the rug being pulled out from under your feet with the software being bought up, left on life support and then the plug is finally pulled.

That said, GM actually makes writing 2D games a lot of fun, and if the online casino plays their cards right( BOM! BOM!) then they will have their own matured game engine to develop their own gambling applications. Oh, and so long as they keep it accessible to the small team or enthusiast, then they will have additional income to look forward to.

(Shrug …) “Business is Business.™”

Always remember:

E-v-e-r-y-o-n-eincluding you!! … in the business™ world … is pursuing a Dollar.”

As a Game Developer™, you’re serving an industry that hopes to persuade a sufficient number of people to pay, probably, “a paltry 99¢, once,” for a little bit of entertainment that you hope they’ll become so addicted-to that they’ll be willing to put up with advertisements.

Meanwhile, casino operators … like lotteries, Gold Rush-era card-sharps, and every other b*stard of their kind … profitably prey upon people who have a 99.9% chance of losing every Dollar that they waste, by dangling in front of their starry (but, un-mathematical …) eyes, “that 0.1%.” (Actually, it is much smaller than that, but I Digress.™)

Of the two Potential Suitors, who would I sell to? Why, there is no question! The game-companies would have to offer me equity, or some other pathetic form of “funny” money. Casino operators could pay with cash.

C’est la guerre …

official statement:

With their help we can now push ahead and hire more people and make GameMaker: Studio an even better platform for casual games developers everywhere.”

And that absolutely might be true! Remember, casino operators have cash. Many casino games designed to appeal to “today’s gambler” are essentially video games. Perhaps the new owners of the company are astute enough to realize that they can not only capture the technology to use in their own gambling equipment, but also [continue to …] develop a product platform that can be licensed as yet-another non-competing source of revenue. (At the very least, a domestic-production tax credit.) Sometimes, a “sugar daddy” is just what you need. Let’s hope it works out for all concerned.