Sure, they claim that Studio 2 is more optimized for laptops, and that the development environment in general is more streamlined and customizable. By releasing GameMaker Studio 2, I think YoYo Games is basically trying to force people to spend extra money to feel like they have the newest software. Before this week, if someone was interested in GameMaker Studio, they could just wait for a Humble Bundle and get a crazy good deal. You see, between the aforementioned Humble Bundle deals and the amount of time GameMaker Studio has been on the market, almost anyone interested in GameMaker already has a copy with a number of modules. Incidentally, this is why I think YoYo Games is releasing GameMaker Studio : as little more than, to be frank, a cash grab. The difference is a lot of people, myself included, got these modules from Humble Bundle or other sites at a deep discount, so it didn’t feel so expensive. Those prices look (and are) steep, but they’re not too far off from what GameMaker Studio’s modules went for.
GameMaker Studio 2’s additional modules (which will allow you to export games for Windows including UWP, MacOS, Ubuntu, Android, iOS, PS4, Xbox One, and HTML) are priced as follows with upgrade paths below: The free version of GameMaker Studio 2 will also not allow exporting of games for different platforms, meaning you can only export them for Windows testing. The free trial of GameMaker studio 2 will only allow a limited number of sprites, objects, rooms, and other resources, meaning it would be almost impossible to make a full game for free. This will allow people to give GameMaker studio a try, though it will be severely restricted.
GameMaker Studio 2, like GameMaker Studio 1.4, will be available for free in its most basic incarnation. With the release of GameMaker Studio 2, YoYo Games has unfortunately stopped selling GameMaker Studio 1.4, though they claim they will continue to support it. Today we’re sticking on the subject of GameMaker, because YoYo Games has just released their newest version of the powerful introductory game development software, GameMaker Studio 2. Just yesterday, we wrote a piece about how you can easily monetize your GameMaker games with HTML5.