You can sign up to get a daily email of our articles, see the Mailing List page.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

YoYo Games developer of GameMaker Studio sold for $10M (updated)

By - | Views: 20,418

Game Maker and later GameMaker Studio is a very popular game engine with indie developers and YoYo Games just recently sold it off and it appears they did so at a loss.

Originally created by Mark Overmars, who later teamed up with YoYo Games who have carried it on since 2007. Later in 2015 the YoYo Games studio was acquired by Playtech for around $16.4 million dollars. News doing the rounds now though, is that Playtech have actually sold YoYo Games to an unnamed buyer:

Playtech has previously stated that it is a strategic focus of the Company to simplify its business and dispose of non-core assets. It is pleased to announce that it has now completed the sale of YoYo Games, part of the discontinued Casual and Social Gaming business, for a consideration of approximately USD 10 million. With the completion of the sale of YoYo Games, Playtech has now disposed of all its Casual and Social Gaming assets.

So they not only sold it for less than they originally purchased it for but the buyer has yet to be formally announced, even with that financial statement being released a week ago. Not just that though, for an entire game engine and company that's a tiny amount of money - which should ring some alarm bells. 

Clever people from the official YoYo Games forum already found who might now own them, thanks to the UK Company House records system we can see that multiple people involved in the Opera browser company now sit as directors of YoYo Games. These records appeared the day after the Playtech statement.

For game developers, the game engine you rely on suddenly changing hands with no prior notice and no announcement a week later must be a little frightening. Games often take multiple years to create, so for developers well into the thick of using GameMaker Studio hopefully the result will be a good one. Perhaps though, the time is ripe to check out Godot Engine since it's free and open source.

Update: Opera have now confirmed they now own YoYo Games in a blog post written today, January 20. From the press release:

"We are very excited to start working with the team at YoYo Games," said Krystian Kolondra, EVP Browsers at Opera. "We see the platform as being an ideal acquisition to complement our global ambitions in gaming, along with our Opera GX gaming browser. We look forward to further growing Opera GX and to driving the growth of GameMaker, making it more accessible to novice users and developing it into the world’s leading 2D game engine used by commercial studios. We are also thrilled to find future synergies between YoYo Games’ products and Opera GX."

Stuart Poole, General Manager of YoYo Games said, "It’s been clear to us from the first time we spoke to them that the whole of the team at Opera is incredibly passionate about games. Since joining them last week, the positivity and creative energy we are seeing from them has been overwhelming. We have always had big plans for improving GameMaker across all platforms, both from the perspective of improving accessibility and further developing the features available to commercial studios; and now we can’t wait to see them arrive much sooner."

To note that Opera GX is their "gaming browser", currently only available for Windows while their normal Opera browser is available for Linux.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
14 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
8 comments

Eike Jan 20, 2021
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
Seems companies are not believing in a bright future of the engine...
riusma Jan 20, 2021
Seems to be the company behind Opera browser according to RPS (source ).
Liam Dawe Jan 20, 2021
Quoting: riusmaSeems to be the company behind Opera browser according to RPS (source ).
Someone didn't read the article...
riusma Jan 20, 2021
Quoting: Liam Dawe
Quoting: riusmaSeems to be the company behind Opera browser according to RPS (source ).
Someone didn't read the article...

Whoaaaaa... I'm so sorry... I think I totally skipped an entire paragraph... I have to go to bed earlier tonight.
Liam Dawe Jan 20, 2021
Update: Opera have now confirmed they now own YoYo Games in a blog post written today, January 20.
tonR Jan 20, 2021
Well, from browser-making software company, turns unethical lender and now.. becoming game publisher? Man.. Opera nowadays is real-life *face-changing opera performer!

*a.k.a Bian Lian ( Wikipedia Link )
BielFPs Jan 20, 2021
Judging by the prints of games made with this engine, I think is not something that Godot can't already handle as a replacement, which may justify why the price was so "cheap" in this case.
Purple Library Guy Jan 21, 2021
Could be worse for GameMaker. Opera are all about stubbornly continuing to find a niche for their closed-source offering even as the space they're in gets taken over by open source. I feel that stubbornness is what GameMaker will likely need as all the little closed game engines find themselves superseded by Godot (and a couple of other open source engines).
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.