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GameMaker Studio Pricing Revealed

The cost of GameMaker Studio has been revealed in an article in Develop.

The basic GameMaker Studio program will cost $99 and will enable created games to be exported for Windows and Mac.

Exporters for additional supported platforms, at launch iOS, Android, HTML5 and Nokia’s Symbian, will cost an additional $200 each.

Those who have purchased GameMaker HTML5 will automatically receive access to GameMaker Studio with the Windows, Mac and HTML5 export options. As GameMaker HTML5 can currently be purchased for $99 this gives a potential saving of $200 over the cost of buying this level of GameMaker Studio package directly when it becomes available ($299 = $99 basic program + $200 for the HTML5 export).

With a $99 basic version I wonder whether we will see development of the standalone “GameMaker 8.1” and Mac versions cease?

What do you think?

39 Comments

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  1. Brian :“Real” developers? They use Unity or other non-click 2d based options such as Haxe, Monkey, or Google PlayN for multi-platform options.

    Awesome! Thanks! I didn’t know Google PlayN existed until I read your post. It’s nice to know that they used it for the Chrome HTML5 port of Angry Birds. The smoothness of that game is proof of the power of that free game kit.

    I bought GameMaker 8.1 several months ago, assuming that I could upgrade at a discount. Not only is that not the case, if I want to target HTML5, Android, and iOS, I’d have to lay out $596 for the full package. I was really hoping that GameMaker Studio would be a less expensive alternative to other cross-platform options in the $600 neighborhood, but now it’s right up there with them. For that expense, I’m going to skip purchasing “Studio” for now and invest some time to explore GWT/PlayN and Haxe.

    I guess I’ll just consider my purchase of GameMaker 8.1 as a learning experience, but it may still be useful for quick prototyping before creating the release game with a more open framework.

  2. Gamemaker Studio Sucks. First of all I hate to learn new programming languages but it seem I have no other choice.

    For example (www.blitzbasic.com) MonkeyPro — Full Version for $120 USD allows you to publish on PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360 if you have development kits and license for these console. Full version of MonkeyPro version comes with standard export functions to: Windows 95982000MEXP78, iOS, Android, Flash, HTML5 Windows Phone 7, XNA ,GLFW and PSS.

    You have a package complete for 120$ for 9 platforms. This yoyo games ripoff cost $596.00 for 4 platforms only.

    Why should I pay for an incomplete package of yoyogames which does not support all the formats when I can buy a much cheaper better supported bug free programming tool?

    And secondly those who where trusted GM users for many years believe that GM studio is noting like Game Maker. Very difficult to use and the dark theme and unfixed bugs make it suck. I dont want to use other free or cheap tools. For now gamemaker studio is a failure that’s why I am demanding that game maker studio should look like Gamemaker 8 and not like GMhtml5. Secondly it must have all the hot platforms.

  3. Gamemaker Studio Sucks. First of all I hate to learn new programming languages but it seem I have no other choice.

    For example (www.blitzbasic.com) MonkeyPro – Full Version for $120 USD allows you to publish on PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360 if you have development kits and license for these console. Full version of MonkeyPro version comes with standard export functions to: Windows 95982000MEXP78, iOS, Android, Flash, HTML5 Windows Phone 7, XNA ,GLFW and PSS.

    You have a package complete for 120$ for 9 platforms. This yoyo games ripoff cost $596.00 for 4 platforms only.

    Why should I pay for an incomplete package of yoyogames which does not support all the formats when I can buy a much cheaper better supported bug free programming tool?

    And secondly those who where trusted GM users for many years believe that GM studio is noting like GM8. Very difficult to use and the dark theme and unfixed bugs make it suck.

  4. This is very funny! Pricing is ridicilous. GM is extremely slow! Has lots of issues! The whole code is written badly. Only games you can create in this “code” are pixeleted low res sprites, or 50 polygons objects with low res textures. Your computer freeze or crash in terms of full memory. Also, do you think students will pay 200$?? Who would keep support such a slow code? They need to do huge re-coding and new core which supports all platforms (not seperate products). … more than 40$ for such a semi-product… haha.

  5. It’s pointless arguing about this. If you think it is too expensive, then don’t moan about it, stick with Game Maker Pro. I will happly invest the money to purchase every export. Considering Game Maker Pro has generated me a few thousand dollars.

  6. Hey, just out of curiosity, can anyone confirm that a purchase of GM-HTML5 today for $99 will for sure turn into a license for GM-Studio + HTML5 when it ships? I remember something like that being mentioned a while back, but I wasn’t sure if that was a one-time offer. Can’t imagine why it would be- especially if they’re going to be discontinuing GM-HTML5- but you never know.

  7. As an educator I will remain with GM8.1. I can’t justify the hike for the same product with the *potential* to write for different platforms. I will let my students decide if they ever get to the stage of publishing marketable games. It’s a shame that we cannot test on different platforms – that would have been fun.
    Remember – the students (11-16) are *potential* customers, it would be a shame to move to a competitor that provides for their needs.

  8. … Mark won’t disagree with the way Studio is being managed. Seems some childish people doesn’t catch the truth: “GM Studio is not for learning, it is an investment”.

    Crying people that want to learn Game Maker and have fun, get the lite or the standard version, Studio is not for you.

    nuff said.

  9. Well, I actually find the price to be quite reasonable. The audience is much different than the normal Lite and Standard versions, the Lite and Standard versions will still be there, this is just a step up. Remember, the Studio software is *gasp* $99. Not $300 like people are saying. The Standard software is $49. Lite, of course, is free. It’s not like YYG is not being generous with their offer towards the purchasers of HTML5, as the people knew that they were buying a product that would soon be outmoded.

    Remember how much the other costs of development are, too. To publish on iOS, you need to own a Mac (which the cheapest ones are around $500-700), and pay Apple $100/yr. This is a bit extreme, yet people flood to the apple to sell their products. If you don’t own a Mac already, it costs more to setup with Apple than it does for GM:S with the iOS exporter.

    To those saying that one should learn a free framework or language, GM has several advantages that others do not. For one, low learning curve, low time necessary to program a working prototype and a working game, and, though interpreted in 8.1, rather low requirements to run games. It is also far easier to use what you know than learn a new language. Think like this: If you had to pay expenses for 3 months to, well, live while learning your language so you could start programming your game, or you could spend that time programming that game with GM, which would you rather do? *The same goes for any other language that you may know well.*

    I for one use Lite, and have for quite a while, because I am not a serious programmer, I am a hobbyist.

  10. I don’t get it. If you are a good programmer, publishing your game with one programming to andriod, iOS, windows, mac, webs, for 499 if you purchase a copy of GM:H now, is that deal so bad? If it is, maybe you are not a serious enough about this.

  11. User: Not every product or edition that a company puts out is for the same market. Grandma doesn’t need Windows 7 Professional. YoYo is trying to branch out and make some money. If all they do is sell their products for peanuts, they aren’t going to be able to have a large enough staff to work on new editions, provide support, update the documentation, etc. Studio is for a different segment of the market. Namely, people who are serious about creating games and willing to make a very small investment.

    Your logic about engines and pricing is a bit off. It’s not just about affordability. I have the money to purchase Unity Pro and the Android exporters. By your logic, I should just purchase that. Seeing as GameMaker is sufficient for creating the 2D games I am interested in, I see no reason to buy Unity.

    You say:
    “I bought all GM Pro since years, and I begged them for a way to have our games playable on websites like Flash games, and for some other platforms support. At last they made it, but for a price I definitly can’t afford… But I won’t go using anything else, I won’t waste time learning any other engine.”

    That’s your problem. You want to have your cake and eat it too. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, it’s all about opportunity cost. Spend weeks learning a new language and new APIs or a one time $200 fee to use your existing knowledge. The choice is yours.

    The idea that you would pirate the software is sickening. I’m sure you’d love it if everyone pirated the games you plan on releasing. I swear this is the most entitled community I have ever seen. Everyone expects things that took YoYo thousands of man hours to develop to be handed to them for low or no cost. GameMaker is a product, not a government handout.

    • I think everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but that’s really all you’re offering here, that and a lot of assumptions.

      For example, you’re assuming that YoYo Games is not capable of making money unless they charge such a high price for the studio modules. It would be very hard to know what their financial situation is unless you’ve actually examined their books. Also, the game maker user base is huge and if the studio pricing is able to hit the sweet spot where the majority of users can afford it, YoYo could make far more money, even by selling it for less. I don’t know exactly where that sweet spot is, but looking at the general makeup of the GM community, I think its reasonable to guess that its far below the several hundred dollar level.

      Another assumption you’re making (as indeed all of us have) is that these exporters are actually going to be any good. To me, the quality, stability, capabilities and long-term support of the exporters are going to have a big impact on how much I think they’re worth. But so far, I haven’t seen them in action firsthand and so I can only speculate. I’ve been buying a lot of software for a lot of years and at this point, spec sheets and promises aren’t worth anything to me, especially when it comes to software for rapidly-changing mobile and web platforms. For example, even if the Android exporter is perfect in every way, it might suddenly break when Google pushes out a random software update. I don’t yet know if YoYo Games is up to the task of keeping pace with that sort of constant evolution.

  12. I think YoyoGames is going to have a hard time selling a lot of copies of this at the stated price. Game Maker is pretty good software, but when you start charging big bucks like that, your product is under greater scrutiny.

    The bugs and general shoddiness of the software were completely acceptable when the software cost only 30 bucks. It was easy to ignore! This product was supposed to be a learning tool, not a serious development tool. Until the programming package, especially the room design tool and such, come to that point, they won’t be doing well.

    It was the same with GM4Mac. I was amazed that the software even worked at all, but once I used it more seriously, I found it to be severely lacking. Some features don’t even work, and the software itself is dangerously unstable. That kind of fit and finish dooms your product.

  13. I will purchase as soon as there is a version I can run natively on my mac. Hopefully a more stable version. Game Maker is a fantastic app capable of doing pretty much anything but for me the pc mac barrier is more of a hindrance than pricing.

  14. I have a licence for GM-HTML5($99) , it mean that exporting to html5 in GM-Studio will be free for me.

    But why the same thing will cost $300 (- Studio Base + export html5 ) in GM-Studio for those they didn’t paid GM-HTML5?

  15. For those who say it’s ‘too expensive’, there’s plenty of open source engines out there (Cocos2D comes to mind) that are just as easy as GameMaker, and free. And nothing is stopping no-one from writing their own game engine.

    For the rest of us (who can appreciate that the price is right), there’s GM:Studio.

    • So :
      – Either you already have big sucess making $$$ from your games and you can afford buying the additional exporters and make even more money.
      – Or you don’t success yet though you are trying hard, like 99% of GM users, and Yoyogames is just telling you F.U. instead of helping you…

      GM would not exist without beginners, hobbyist, and unsuccessful game designers. You, or Yoyogames, can’t tell these people to go.

      I bought all GM Pro since years, and I begged them for a way to have our games playable on websites like Flash games, and for some other platforms support. At last they made it, but for a price I definitly can’t afford… But I won’t go using anything else, I won’t waste time learning any other engine. Not earning $$$$ does not mean I don’t work as hard as you nor I have more time to waste than you.

      I don’t care about some other engines costing $2000 a licence, and I don’t care about you guys who can afford it. GM was NOT made for same people as the people using $2000 engines. If you can afford such overpriced engines to make your games, then why were you using GM while you could have been using some of these expensive engines which were far more complete than GM all these years ? Why didn’t you go using an expensive engine like you tell us now to go using a free engine ?

      I won’t go, and I am not ashame of telling you this : after I bought all these GM Pro versions, I’ll now be using an illegal copy of GM:Studio and its HTML5 and Android exporters, until I get from my games the $500 I need to buy it.

    • I could appreciate the price of GM Studio a lot more if it was about half of what it is, and I’ll wager that if that were the case, I wouldn’t hear you complaining that it was too cheap (unless you work for YoYo Games or something).

      But you’re right, there are a lot of professional game making tools and frameworks out there that are free, and some of them are more powerful than Game Maker, which is yet another argument against the high price of GM Studio.

  16. “Your example is valid if the product in question only appeals to a tiny number of people, but even then one can’t simply assume those people are willing to pay any amount of money for it. Also, the Game Maker user base is huge and I believe a great many of them do want to utilize GM Studio’s capabilities. But I agree that only a very small percentage would be able to buy it at the current price.”

    Just upscale it. Slightly larger audience, but then goes with a larger team. (YYG’s have a fair number of employee’s now.)

    This is what GM users have always wanted. None of us want to have to use another tool to develop for iOS, or Android, or HTML5. They suck.

    It’d be lovely if YYG’s just waved a magic wand and ta-da, all out wishes granted, but unfortunately, actually writing these ports took a heck of a lot of time, expertise, and more importantly, expense.

    I’ll admit, I boogled a little at the price, too, but for what we’re getting, it’s darn cheap. I’m not going to be able to afford the whole lot(well, all at once!). I don’t need to. The price does *not* shut out young users. They can continue to learn&use GM8.1 for free/cheap, and when they are ready, opportunities *will* come because of GM studio. Whether it be buy saving up&purchasing GM-S themselves, teaming up with some other devs to publish the game they made, or publishing through YYG’s.

    • Desert Dog, honestly, GM:Studio isn’t cheap. I can see how you would try to rationalize it since it does run on most major platforms now and is the tool that you’re already familiar and comfortable with. However, and correct me if I’m wrong here. GM:Studio has a base price of $99 (Which includes Windows & Mac), and $200 for iOS or Android or HTML5. So to get the full range of platforms that’s $499. That’s the price of a mid-end computer built from scratch. For that price I’d expect a lot more to come out of GM:Studio. Especially since all the way up until version 8.0 (if I recall correctly), was under $60. GM:Studio fixes a few bugs, moderately increases performance but overall keeps the limitations of the GML language, the annoying quirks of the tool (and language) but adds support for multiplatform. Somehow not worth $499 in my book. But that’s my 2 cents.

  17. The pricing is right where it should be. It is not expensive by any means. Not every one needs to export to every single platform. Symbian? Really?

    The price of the software isn’t just dependent on the features available, but on the fact that it simplifies the ability to produce content for extra platforms. It’s all about the opportunity costs. Rather than spending time learning new APIs and recoding the software, you can use one codebase to export to numerous formats. Are saving all of those extra hours worth a few hundred dollars? You bet it is.

    I also think that a large part of the userbase is made up of teens with wild dreams of becoming rich mobile app developers. Half of them can’t even put together proper posts on the GMC. I’m going to guess most of them haven’t even submitted their own income taxes, let alone would they understand how to remit the sales tax included in purchases from app sales on Android (Google will collect the tax when necessary, but it is passed to the developer to be sent to the proper tax authority).

    If they can’t support the burden of a few hundred dollars, there is no way they are ready to handle the other responsibilities that would come with developing on these additional platforms.

  18. So is Game Maker 8.1 going to stop being developed?
    If GM Studio gets out, what does that mean to developers that make “fan” games solely for educational purposes and to honor their favorite games if GM 8.1 will stop being sold.
    If GM 8.1 is stopped or replaced by the expensive GM Studio, I believe you are all destroying the idea Mark Overmars had several years ago… to help people (young and old) learn how to program games easily. It will be impossible for someone like me for a price tag of $300! I do not believe Mark would have wanted his program (or Ascendant of his program in this case) to be used by a “small group of game dev’s,” as Desert Dog put it. It was originally intended for more than that. Take it from someone who has been using this since release of Game Maker 4.2a!

  19. “If I spend several years creating a game- which is not an unusual thing to do- I can’t sell it for $500 a copy, no matter how good it is. Nobody would pay even close to that much for a game.”

    Not quite.

    If a (comparatively) small group of people told you ‘hey, we really want this game’. Then you went and took several years to make it, yes, you would charge them a large amount of money. How else would you get paid for your time? No one else wants the game, they do.

    It isn’t a game for the masses, it caters to a very specific group of people. These people have to pay more than the ‘average cheap game’ for this game, because only a few people want it, and SOMEONE has to pay for all the years put into making the game…!

    So yes, if GM studio was going to be used by millions&millions of people, a cheap price would make perfect sense. But it isn’t, it’s going to be used by a small group of game dev’s, who have to pay the difference.

    • Your example is valid if the product in question only appeals to a tiny number of people, but even then one can’t simply assume those people are willing to pay any amount of money for it. Also, the Game Maker user base is huge and I believe a great many of them do want to utilize GM Studio’s capabilities. But I agree that only a very small percentage would be able to buy it at the current price.

      The only group of people I can think of who might be happy about the high price of this software are devs who are afraid of competition, since it does greatly limit the number of people who can publish games. But that shouldn’t matter to YoYo Games. In a strictly business sense, their goal should be to price their software so it makes the most money overall, and I believe they could do that by making it more affordable.

  20. It’s actually a pretty cheap price if you ask me. I’ve seen what Game Maker
    Studio can do and it’s really as good as it looks. You can make real money
    with this thing. If you’re a real developer, you don’t give a damn about the cost
    and you just dive in.

    If you think this costs too much, look at Unity. $1500 for pro, and $1500 per each
    export module. You know how many things studio will export to? And you’re asking only $300? Do you know how hard they worked on this?

    Studio costs more for a reason. YoYoGames doesn’t want your purchase.
    Game Maker Standard is made to be more cheap and accessible. Game Maker Studio is just
    not for you. And you can get a free upgrade if you buy HTML5 at $99. You’ll
    get Windows, Mac, and HTML5 exports.

    Free exports as they come at no extra cost? You’re not the only person in this world. Other people need their dough too. Honestly… Are you just some five
    year old who wants a lollipop for free? Real life doesn’t work that way.

    • I don’t completely disagree with you, but there are several things I’d like to point out.

      -Just because a person (or a group of people) works really hard on a piece of software doesn’t automatically mean it deserves to be sold for an exorbitant amount of money. If I spend several years creating a game- which is not an unusual thing to do- I can’t sell it for $500 a copy, no matter how good it is. Nobody would pay even close to that much for a game.

      -A few years ago, Game Maker cost $25. Now, to get the full version of Studio it will cost $900. That’s a staggering 36x increase in price. I don’t have a problem with a reasonable price increase as a program’s capabilities are extended, but this jump is a bit ridiculous. There are very few programs of any sort that cost this much, including many professional level ones.

      -To the best of my understanding, this is not a ground-up rewrite of the old Game Maker. Aside from a few welcome (but still fairly minor) improvements, the only significant addition is the new game runner with the ability to export to different platforms. I do believe this is worth paying more for, but not nearly as much as they’re asking.

      -I think that at this early stage, its not helpful to compare GM Studio to Unity, since they are very different systems with very different capabilities. Yes, Unity is expensive, but in my opinion, that alone shouldn’t have anything to do with the pricing of Game Maker. And since GM Studio isn’t even out yet, its not even clear how well its exporters will work or how stable they are.

      -Do you really believe that YoYo Games simply doesn’t want the business of people who only wish to pay $300 for the full version GM Studio? Perhaps you’re right, but I really hope that’s not the case because it would be incredibly short-sided of them. To have someone willing to pay $300 for any piece of software, especially for something that was $25 shareware only a few years ago, is pretty amazing.

      I firmly believe that somewhere in the $200-300 range is the sweet spot that they should be targeting, since most current Game Maker users are hobbyists and students who just don’t have a ton of cash to spare, but I think most of them would love to take a crack at publishing their games across multiple platforms and seeing if they can earn a few bucks. I know I would, and I could probably scrape together a couple hundred, but not much more than that.

    • “Real” developers? They use Unity or other non-click 2d based options such as Haxe, Monkey, or Google PlayN for multi-platform options. Unity is 3d and costs more for that fact. The other 2d options either cost less or nothing at all and support more platforms. I don’t even mention the other click based options which also cost less, some of which already have more target platforms available.

      I’d pay $500 for a “complete” version, but $300 seems more like it would work as an impulse option. Asking $300 for just Win, Mac, HTML5 and then another $200 for each additional platform? Please, just charge me more up front and be done with it.

      What’s more important for a company? Charging more and making less money, or charging less and getting more money? If the full version with all platforms was on sale right now for $99 it would be a no-brainer impulse buy for me and the rest of the “real” developers on the Internet. This still looks like a hobby tool to me, and it would take more to get serious devs to spend “real” money on it if they only intend to mess around with it (the other tools already do everything it promises to do, why would I pay more for it if the “full” product could potentially cost a few k?). As their sales options read now this is not an obvious buy for me.

  21. I was about to buy the HTML5 version now, but then read you are charging $200 per extra module. I would rather have an all in one price.

    $200 per module is no good. Purchase lost.

    Want me to change my mind? Sell the “complete” version for $300 and leave it at that, add more exporter options over time at no extra cost.

  22. …Also, I’m glad that the export modules will be available separately, but $200 each is to much, especially on top of $100 for the base software. Its disappointing to see YoYo Games decide to price their software out of the range of affordability of much of their user base.

    • Mate, you should probably check out the price of other smartphone app authoring tools. $200 per platform is pretty par for the course.

  23. I’m a little bit confused. What is the “basic” version of studio? It sounds like its just the current Game Maker Pro but for $99. Do people who already own Game Maker Pro get a free upgrade to basic studio, since its pretty much the same thing we already have?

    • The base Game Maker Studio is Windows and Mac executable creation. This does not mean you can run it on both Mac and Windows, but it does mean you can make games that run on both Windows and Mac using the new C++ runner. It also allows you to buy the add-on packages to extend the functionality of the software to be able to program for iPhone, Android, etc. Owners of Game Maker Pro will NOT get an upgrade to Studio.

  24. It’s been mentioned previously that features such as Box 2D will only be available in Studio, so I’d expect that we will still have GM Lite, Standard and Studio as three products.

    GM for Mac development has long been ceased, with the only updates for critical bugs (even this has not happened in a while). There’s just no point spending time and money on an outdated code base that will soon be replaced.

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