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Amazon first wanted to make a game, so they bought Double Helix, a game company. With virtually unlimited budget, they started making a game, until a correction came from high up top that Amazon should actually make an engine, not a game, so that they could collect royalties from other people making games. Double Helix says fine, we can make one in 5-6 years. The plan travels slowly across Amazon, until it hits one particular individual that doesn't like it. Executives then start to look for an engine. First they talk to Unity, which was surprisingly receptive to the idea, but not much happened in the end (should be around 2014, around the time John Riccitiello became CEO). Cue in Crytek and Amazon becoming aware of their financial troubles, and the rest is history. The press release hits, and that's how Double Helix learns of what's going on. Now they are not only supposed to make an engine, but merge the older version of CryEngine as well. That went as well as you would expect. It took them 2 years just to make something workable. O3DE came to being once Amazon realized Lumberyard didn't have any mind-share at all. Nearly no part of the CryEngine code base is left, from my understanding. A lot of the original plan from Double Helix finally materialized in form of Atom, and other gems. Though CryEngine was a major hindrance, and some of its effects can still be felt, O3DE is now its own thing. Still leashed to Amazon mind you, and all their bright minded executives. But at least all of the CryEngine code has been ~~purged~~ removed. |