Dotemu was founded by Xavier Liard and Romain Tisserand in 2007. The company's offices are located in Paris, close to the Folies Bergère.

In April 2010, Dotemu launched a new digital distribution service that would sell games without digital rights management, akin to Good Old Games. In March 2017, Dotemu announced that their online store would be closed down on 1 June that year.[4] The company cited tough market competition and their focus shifting towards game development rather than game distribution.

In September 2015, Liard and Tisserand sold their company to an unnamed private investor.[7] Later that month, they founded a new video game publisher, Playdigious (who would later publish Dotemu’s games on mobile platforms). Subsequently, in October 2014, Cyrille Imbert was appointed as Dotemu's chief executive officer. In March 2018, Dotemu announced the creation of The Arcade Crew, a publishing label that would support small development teams.

In August 2021, the company was acquired by Focus Home Interactive (now Focus Entertainment) for approximately €38.5 million (US$46 million).