Coming with the release of GMS2.0.7, YoYoGames have released Console modules to allow developers to build for Microsoft XBox One and Sony PlayStation 4. There is as yet still no module to allow development targeting the Nintendo Switch.
The cost for these console development modules is $800 for 12 months. Each.
Additionally, customers who purchase a console module must be a registered developer program for the console in question.
Or, for “just” $1500/year, you can subscribe to GMS2.0 Ultimate Edition, which seems to be a response to popular demand to bring back the “Master Collection” package. Ultimate Edition is an “everything and the kitchen sink” bundle that includes any future modules that YYG may release for no additional cost. The price of Ultimate is much higher than the cost for Master Collection , however, and is subscription-based, rather than a perpetual license. GMS1.x Master Collection was originally introduced at a 1-time cost of $500, later $800.
Readers may recall that I predicted that YoYoGames planned to move GMS2 to a subscription model, and that their license activation was in fact already a de facto a subscription model, and today’s announcement bears out that assessment.
YoYoGames confirmed that the existing modules (Desktop, Mobile, HTML5, UWP) remain a permanent license that you pay for once. However, it’s been YoYoGames’ practice in the past to charge again for the product when it hits the next major release number. Accordingly, YoYo could, if it wanted, release GMS3.0 next year, and charge everyone for an upgrade to that, and drop support/updates for 2.x, effectively forcing everyone to pay for another upgrade at that point. It’s a good bet that at some point they will switch to a subscription-based model at all tiers.
YoYo seem to be pricing themselves out of the market with this announcement. While it’s not unreasonable to charge a premium for the console build targets, the price points announced today do not compare favorably with the competition. Unity3D is also subscription-based, now, but you can get full access to all Unity3D build targets for free, with an income cap of $100K. Game Developers earning revenue over $100K/year from their games must upgrade to Plus or Pro tiers, at $35 or $125/mo — the $125/mo Unity Pro tier matches the cost of GMS2 Ultimate.
The Unity3D IDE is Visual Studio, an industry leader, and the language is C#. By contrast, the GameMaker Studio IDE and GML language are quite limited compared to the capabilities of Visual Studio and C#.
It’s likely that most developers who are in the Microsoft XBox or Sony PlayStation developer programs are already experienced professionals accustomed to professional-quality, industry standard development tools, so it’s hard to see why they would want to take a step down and use GameMaker when they could use Unity3D, or Unreal, or some other tool at less cost. GameMaker Studio 2 Ultimate is priced comparable to Unity Pro, but the capabilities and tools around Unity are much stronger and more flexible.