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GameMaker HTML5 Pricing Revealed – $199 (or $99)

HTML5 GameMakerYoYo Games will sell their HTML5 GameMaker product for $199 (£120, €140)^.

A $100 discount is available to those who purchase during the beta period which, anticipated to start in September, is just weeks away. This means that active GameMaker users will be able to pick up a copy of GameMaker HTML5 for $99.

Writing on Twitter earlier today developer Mike Dailly wrote that he was “really looking forward to start releasing some of the demos to the public!”

You can sign up for the GameMaker HTML5 beta here.

What do you think?

40 Comments

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  1. Well would you look at that. Game Maker started as an easy, fun tool that anyone could use and learn how to make games with. Now it’s become corrupted by big business. Mark Overmars would be ashamed.

    • “Mark Overmars would be ashamed.” You are aware that Mark Overmars is one of the directors at YYGs. One of the guys leading the direction of GameMaker and one of the guys contributing to decisions such as pricing.

      Obviously not. Another educated opinion.

  2. While I’ve generally been disappointed at every decision YoYo Games has made regarding Game Maker, I actually have to thank them for (inadvertently) helping to nudge me toward the world of “real programming.” Their actions have been a major catalyst in my efforts to learn C and Python and to familiarize myself with major open source libraries like SDL and Ogre.

    Simply put, if Game Maker had been able to grow and expand to keep pace with my development needs (like exporting to iOS and other mobile platforms), I doubt I would’ve ever left the nest. And even though Game Maker is still currently the tool I reach for when I want to quickly rough out a game idea, I see it now in my rear-view mirror and its definitely starting to fade into the distance.

  3. I saw that someone said that they would prefer Construct 2 over GameMaker HTML5, but no one has yet mentioned the prices for Construct, which seems strange to me as it is currently the only real competition to GM HTML5 that I know about.

    GM HTML5 costs £120 (Full Price) the full price of an EQUAL version of Construct 2 costs £149.

    Now some of you will say that Construct 2 only costs £39 (Or £19 if you buy it in beta) but that is for the non-commercial version meaning you can’t sell the apps you make with it.

    So when you compare the fact that, like ever other version of GameMaker, you can SELL the games you made with it (According to Mike on Twitter). GM HMTL5 is actually CHEAPER than the competition.

    So remind me, why GM HTML isn’t competitive?

    (Construct 2 prices can be found @ http://www.scirra.com/blog/47/announcing-launch-day-monday-22nd-august)

    • Scirra are supposed to be making the final announcements regarding their licenses and exactly what will be included in the free version on Monday. Will be sure to report on this.

    • Competitive also means your price is hard for your competitors to match, not a mere 30 pounds difference.

      Think about the future, chap… think about the future.

      Who is GM HTML5 targeted to? Seasoned programmers? or probably designers used to products like Flash?

      With GM HTML5 you must think beyond the indie game making scene… I think a big market for GM HTML5 is as replacement for Interactive banners, nowadays made in Flash.

      Adobe will certainly enter the competition really soon, and they have way more resources to hit big. What about Google Swiffy too?

      Most of those professionals, willing to pay hundreds for software, work with Mac computers. That’s also a must for YoYo: get an equally powerfull Mac version of this, or you’ll loose market share.

      I’d also add: get out of beta soon, update regularly, release win and mac updates at the same time.

  4. Even from a business-only perspective a $199 price tag is not competitive.

    On top of that, most of the serious developers that would be willing to pay $199 usually work with Macs.

    Considering the slow and poor development they’ve shown to the mac version of GameMaker… We can’t expect to see a proper GameMaker HTML5 for mac soon. And when they finally release it, there are gonna be lots of competitors already.

    Sandy wants to compete with pros playing amateur moves. Again.

    I’m gonna quote Anna Anthropy too:
    “Alternatives like Stencyl are slowly emerging, but meanwhile what could still be the most valuable tool for transforming videogame creation from the exclusive province of major corporations is being held hostage by a corporation whose only interest is the bottom line. YoYo Games has the opportunity to act as stewards for a piece of software that can change the boundaries of who’s allowed to make videogames. Instead, they’re merely trying to gouge hobbyists and dabblers for as much as they can. The owners of Game Maker seem to have chosen pocket change over real change.”

    That’s the opinion of one of the most important voices in the indie game development scene.

    Are you paying fuc*ing attention, Sandy?

  5. $99 i can see but anything over that is crazy…….not to mention all the bugs gamemaker still has…i love this tool because it taught me alot but come on…..they would make much more making it affordable than not….especially this early in its development,

    • Really? They have to sell 10 times more copies at $20 to make the same money as selling one copy for $200 (if we ignore the fees and expenses occurred per sale). Look at the number of people saying “it’s too expensive, but it’s awesome so I’ll but it during the beta period when it’s $99”. I highly doubt they could sell 10 times more copies at $20 than they could at $200.

    • Dangerous_Dave :Really? They have to sell 10 times more copies at $20 to make the same money as selling one copy for $200 (if we ignore the fees and expenses occurred per sale). Look at the number of people saying “it’s too expensive, but it’s awesome so I’ll but it during the beta period when it’s $99″. I highly doubt they could sell 10 times more copies at $20 than they could at $200.

      I believe he said $99, not $20. And I would also like to add that there may very well be more than 10 times as many people willing to pay $20 as there are who are willing to pay $200. I wouldn’t assume that there aren’t.

  6. Noel Berry :

    I can’t see this as a viable way of making any sort of profit from HTML5 games.

    Every game can be shared but plenty of people buy them anyway.

    Another way HTML5 is useful is as a marketing tool. You can embed a demo into your website and offer a full-featured version for sale. PopCap had great success with this using a Java-based framework that worked like their normal C-based framework.

    • This makes HTML5 games, not Flash games. If you were looking for Flash development you’d have to find it somewhere else anyways. Not that’d warrant that, considering I feel HTML5 is a much better idea 😉

  7. This seems very ridiculous to me for a number of reasons:

    1) I don’t understand why I’d want to pay $200 in the first place simply for HTML5 capabilities. Coding in Javascript/HTML5 is relatively easy and you can get started for free in a number of different text editing environments.
    2) There are a number of free options such as Construct 2, not to mention quite a few HTML5 engines that are free, open source, and available for anyone to use
    3) It seems like this move is screwing over their primary audience, which, like it or not, is hobbyists, inexperienced programmers, and students, who are unlikely to be able to afford something such as this. Any professional developer looking at making games in HTML5 will just write their own engine, or use an already existing open source engine that’s available.

    It feels like Game Maker is moving away from what it was best at: an easy to use, inexpensive tool for people interested in learning how to make games. All they’re doing by increasing the prices like this is making it a lot harder for their audience to actually use the tool, which is a shame. I don’t see Game Maker as a professional game development tool, yet it seems that YoYo Games is trying to push it in that direction.

    I haven’t used Game Maker for several years now, but I’m still pretty disappointed to see it going this way. I can’t see it succeeding or competing against other professional development tools (examples being tools such as Unity).

    Oh well. Best of luck to YoYo Games.

  8. Considering there are much more powerful and/or similar engines for half the price (Unreal and Impact) or even free (Unity and LimeJS) this is kind of too much.

  9. Yeah, that price is way too high. Also, this does not bode well for the pricing on GM Studio, which is something that can actually be used to make money, unlike this HTML5 business. Of course, someone please correct me if I’m wrong. Is there a reliable way to make money from HTML5 games, short of surrounding the game with annoying banner ads on a webpage? If not, then having to pay a professional-level price of $200 for the software to export them seems out of whack to me.

    • You could create a website that only lets registered (and paying) users run full-versions of games. Or you could make games that do micro-transactions or something. Evil stuff, I know, but entirely possible.

    • FredFredrickson :You could create a website that only lets registered (and paying) users run full-versions of games. Or you could make games that do micro-transactions or something. Evil stuff, I know, but entirely possible.

      So does Game Maker HTML5 have features for setting up micro-transactions then? I wouldn’t have the foggiest idea how to write something like that on my own, let alone manage it.

    • FredFredrickson :You could create a website that only lets registered (and paying) users run full-versions of games.

      All you need is to have one person register and then copy the source code of the game and release it. Then the game with all its source code is out there for anyone to use and distribute. I can’t see this as a viable way of making any sort of profit from HTML5 games.

  10. Sound a bit overpriced to me, especially if I have to pay that price again in 6 months to get the Android export…
    I was especting each exporter to be $50 option.
    But anyway, I’ll definitly buy it, since I’ll make money with it.

    Can anybody buy it $99 in september or do you have to be a beta-tester for that ?

  11. I expected a ~$100 price so I’m a bit sticker shocked. For a Professional Tool it’s quite affordable. But if you are like 99.999% of GM users and are not a pro, it feels a bit out of reach. It’s a disappointment that so many longtime GM hobbyists (as well as budding game creators) will continue to be stymied by web delivery.

  12. HAHAHAHA!!!! This is…HILARIOUS! BWAHAHAHA!

    They can’t even learn basic optimization techniques used in the 80s, yet they think they are competent enough to sell yet another broken cross-compiler for a language that ends up being opensource at an unsuitable price….all while alienating the audience that Mark Overmars himself set out to target. It’s only a matter of time before someone creates their own html5 exporter to bypass this crap.

    No matter what fez hat you put on a pile of shit…you still have a pile of shit.

  13. I don’t think the pricing is entirely ridiculous when you compare it to other tools. And of course, there aren’t too many HTML5 programs out there that are as full-featured or easy to use as GameMaker yet, to my knowledge. Being able to pay half price during the beta period is also a pretty good deal.

    That said, I think YYG could be missing a big opportunity here. If they priced it just a little cheaper, I think they’d stand a better chance of wedging GameMaker firmly into place as one of the premiere ways to create HTML5 games / apps. As it is now, it may be out of reach from the many amateurs / hobbyists out there who are looking to HTML5 as the future of browser-based game development. It leaves the door open for another, cheaper, solution to step in front.

    But then, compared to Adobe Flash, and more “professional” tools, $199 isn’t really so bad, so… who knows? It’ll be interesting to see how it all unfolds, at least. 🙂

    I’ve been lucky enough to play around with the HTML5 beta version of GameMaker early, and I have to say… it’s pretty impressive to see GameMaker games running in my browser. YYG is doing good work. I just hope they don’t blow it with bad pricing decisions.

  14. I think the price is really reasonable: not only is this the first product of its kind on the market, it is also very impressive technology that professionals will surely take advantage of. I’m definitely buying it.

  15. I would like to know, can I use an existing Game Maker 8 project and simply open it up with the Game Maker HTML5 and export it right out to HTML5? Or is Game Maker HTML5 an entirely different system that is incompatible with Game Maker 8 projects?

  16. “How much do they make off of each one sold?”
    We don’t know. They don’t know. None have been sold yet 😉 They have invested a lot of time developing this over the last few months. Am looking forward to see some demos to see how well they play – what I’ve heard is very impressive.

  17. That’s ridiculous.

    Remember when it used to be 20$?? Sure it didn’t have as many features, but is HTML 5 really worth an extra 180$? How much do they make off of each one sold? I’d understand if it were Game Maker Studio, with iOs and PSN publishing, but this is insane.

  18. I’m happy with the price. The $99 beta period is when I’ll be buying it. I can’t warrant spending $200 without expecting some return, but $99 is within the “splurge” price range (just). Should be fun to play with :D.

  19. Well, if you think about the potential it has, it could be worth it’s money. And it would be mainly aimed at more professional developers, as the Standard Game Maker is more of a ‘Level 1’ for the developer. The next step would be HTML coding, and finally, GM Studio.

  20. I must say I am impressed that they have a supposedly functioning html5 exporting system and whatnot, but really, $200?

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RekameMag – Issue 4

Community Links: Ludum Dare 21, Pricing and Focus of GameMaker, GameJolt indie(Function) Contest