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Comment by TheAceOfHearts | Hacker News Reader

The link should probably be updated to point directly to Venturebeat [0] instead of the AMP version. I think submitting the AMP version might break the guidelines, which ask you to submit the original source.

I preordered Star Citizen a few years ago, but I stopped keeping track of all updates after a while. To be honest, I kinda assumed it'd just become vaporware.

Although I'd heard about Amazon Lumberyard before, I hadn't considered this before: I wonder if Amazon will start a game studio at some point, since they seem to have a hand in pretty much every other tech scene. Are there any big avenues open for disruption in the videogame scene?

[0] http://venturebeat.com/2016/12/23/star-citizen-and-squadron-...

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Amazon actually already runs a game studio: https://games.amazon.com

Well, that doesn't surprise me, but still... I'm absolutely amazed at how many things they seem to be doing over at Amazon.

I wonder if Amazon will follow Google's route and start splitting up into smaller companies at some point?

I think it is already split into a lot of sub-companies.

https://www.quora.com/List-of-all-Amazon-properties-subsidia...

https://www.google.com/amp/www.geekwire.com/2016/amazon-now-...

Amazon recently reorganized itself into three gorups, with Andy Jassy becoming CEO of AWS, Jeff Wilke CEO of retail, and Bezos keeping digital.

Not sure how much still goes all the way to the top but the impression from an investment perspective is the three main arms of the company can operate more independently.

I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon bought Crytek soon.

Ok, we changed the URL from https://www.google.com/amp/venturebeat.com/2016/12/23/star-c.... Thanks!

Amazon Game Studios has been around for a few years now (released a facebook game back in 2011) and a few mobile games. Their strategy has been a bit different from Lumberyard, though, which seems to focus more on console/PC as well as Twitch (due to their ownership of the popular game streaming platform). We will see if it coalesces into a larger strategy.

Upwards to 70% of the XBOX360/PS3 generation AAA games ran on the Unreal Engine. For the XBONE/PS4 gen its 60% Unreal 30% Unity 10% stuff like CryEngine. It'd be very hard to knock Unreal off its throne since it's very, very well written and essentially free (you pay 5% of profits for commercial use when you go above a certain threshold). So no, there aren't any real openings for disruption unless Epic does something massively stupid.

For AAA games, it's mostly in-house engines. Frostbite for EA games. Call of Duty games use the IW Engine. Bethesda uses either idTech or something geared for their RPGs.

Bethesda has been using the Gamebryo/Creation Engine for their RPGs (Fallout/Skyrim). I think Bethesda has only used idTech for Rage/Doom.

The Wolfenstein games and The Evil Within are both idTech as well.

They are too many to name. Check this[1] page for each gen. From gen 2 onwards, you'll be astounded.

[1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unreal_Engine_games

Look at the top-selling Xbox One games:

http://www.vgchartz.com/platform/68/xbox-one/

You have to go down to #31 to find an Unreal Engine game (Batman: Arkham Knight). The only licensed engine game that I know of in the top 30 is Titanfall, which licensed the Source engine from Valve. The situation is similar for the PS4.

#9 Gears of War: Ultimate Edition uses UE FYI

So, this is correct and I thank you for the correction. Having said that, I don't think that changes my point much if any -- there's one game in the top 30 sellers that uses Unreal Engine, and it didn't use it as a third-party engine -- Epic developed both UE and Gears of War.

By and large, the developers of AAA games don't license an engine from a third party.

Bethesda's subsidiary id uses idTech. Bethesda Game Studios (Elder Scrolls, Fallout) has used their Gamebryo/Creation engine for about 15 years.

So, as I've noted above, other studios besides id use idTech at Bethesda -- you could argue that MachineGames doing the Wolfenstein games is still an id property, but Tango used it for The Evil Within, too. And I did say "or something geared for their RPGs." I couldn't remember the name Creation Engine when I was posting on my phone at a Christmas gathering.

MachineGames and Tango are owned by ZeniMax[0], the Bethesda parent company. I faintly remember someone (Carmack, maybe?) mentioning that idTech5 would only be licensed to studios within ZeniMax.[1] Of course, anyone can use idTech up to 4, since those are open source, and were licensed out.

[0] https://www.zenimax.com/studios

[1] http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/29886/id_Tech_5_Rage_Engi...

Yes, MachineGames and Tango are owned by ZeniMax. They are published by Bethesda Softworks, the parent company of Bethesda Game Studios and a ZeniMax subsidiary. I don't really understand the point of this faux pedantry, seeing as there is a meaning of Bethesda that fits my post.

That's assuming that all game engines are created equal.

I'll give you that Unreal and CryEngine are similar enough to make that comment, but there's plenty of space for innovation within engines. Amazon seems to be trying their hand at it with twitch integration for example.

In general, game development is filled with archaic processes, boilerplate, inefficient workflows etc. Unity3d was the jQuery of game development in that regard, and we're nowhere near peak.

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