YoYo Games founders speak on GameMaker sale

The founders of YoYo Games say they sold the company to ensure the team could keep adding new features to its development tool GameMaker.

A statement on the official website claims that the firm had been unable to secure investment elsewhere without compromising on their vision for the tool – to make a game engine for both beginners and professionals.

The post went on to state it accepted PlayTech’s £10.65m offer for the company as it was the first investor “who didn’t want to alter our vision”. Prior to that, YoYo Games had been a self-funded endeavour, which meant they needed to continue selling more products before they could invest in new features.

“They haven’t just bought the company, they’re committed to investing in YoYo Games in a way that we have never been able to previously,” read a statement.

“With their help we can now push ahead and hire more people and make GameMaker: Studio an even better platform for casual game developers everywhere. If there are any changes they will be additions to our plans. In fact, we’re already working on a number of these and some of you will get a very pleasant surprise this summer.

“They’ve also made us commit to launching GameMaker: Studio 2.0 later this year. In our efforts to generate sales we’ve not been getting our resources packed into Studio 2.0 as we would have liked. But now it’s all hands on deck and we’re really excited that PlayTech’s investment will help us get this done at twice the speed.”

A PlayTech spokesperson recently addressed a number of concerns with Develop on its plans for the tool. He said the firm was “unlikely” to make large-scale changes to the licensing options for the engine. It was also stated that PlayTech plans to integrate some of its own tech and services into the engine in future, though it was not specific on exactly how this will be implemented.

You can read our full interview with PlayTech here.