i wish i bought the permanent PC license a few months ago on sale, and now i can't buy it at all. it's annoying but i probably won't be using Gamemaker in a few years anyway.

but besides people in this situation, who does it affect?

if you already have licenses, you'll get to keep them anyway, and it'll only be an inconvenience when you want to export to other platforms.

and anyone that still hasn't discovered or gotten into Gamemaker yet, can get in for free! they'll get to mess around with the engine however they like, without having to pay. this is great when they can easily turn to Unity, Godot or some other engine.

which brings me to another point. this is just my opinion, but i don't think it was ever a good idea for most GM users to pay hundreds of dollars for all the old licenses. i don't think it's hard to see how it was making Gamemaker so exclusive while most future game developers only knew about free engines. but something like making mobile games in GM for fun won't cost over 100$ anymore.

i really do like GM, but most users including myself would probably be better of discovering different engines, software etc. in their time instead of spending all of that time and money on Gamemaker.