The British company Playtech has acquired for $ 16.4 million the Scottish studio YoYo Games, which develops and supports the multi-platform game engine GameMaker.
Another $5.25 million will be paid depending on the results that the studio will demonstrate after the deal. However, the founder and CEO of YoYo, Sandy Duncan, has already left the company.
It is assumed that the acquisition of the engine will help Playtech’s expansion into the casual market. However, there is one funny moment. The Russian company Plamee, the gaming division of Playtech, engaged in creating casual titles, makes games on Unity (this can be judged by the summary of the Novosibirsk office).
So it’s not entirely clear why the British needed such an asset as GameMaker. On the other hand, the services of the latter are currently used by more than 750 thousand developers, and this is a good figure.
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PlayTech is a British company specializing in creating service solutions for online gambling.
YoYo Games is a Scottish studio, known mainly for its game engine designer Game Maker. The first version of the latter appeared long before the creation of the company itself – in 1999.