It seems unbelievable that the same company dedicated to selling books, server time, and even toilet paper would decide to enter the game engine market, but if there is one thing we know about Amazon, it is its diversity. Details about its new engine Lumberyard surfaced in mid-2015, when it became known that Amazon had invested a significant sum in Crytek. What's most striking? Lumberyard will be completely free, although there is some fine print to examine closely.
Any new tool that makes the work of developers and designers easier is definitely welcome. Game engines occupy a privileged position, and it can even be said that there is quite a fierce competition. The two most notable cases are Unreal Engine and Unity, which offer free versions with some conditions attached.
Now another opponent enters the game, and it is none other than Amazon. Available information reveals that Jeff Bezos's company reached an agreement with Crytek, home of the famous CryEngine, in 2014, and in April 2015 it was said the sum reached $70 million. Amazon did not buy Crytek, which makes us think of a long-term license, but the result of its work is here: Lumberyard.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/EdU1s1FGTDYIntegration with AWS and Twitch
The first point to mention about Lumberyard is its solid integration with AWS and Twitch. The AWS platform is one of the most important in the world, and with the spectacular advance of online games, it makes sense to see AWS there. On the other hand, we must remember that Amazon bought Twitch in August 2014 paying almost a billion dollars for that streaming service. I imagine each developer will decide whether to use Twitch support or not, but with millions of users under its wing, it would be crazy to ignore such an audience. The second point Lumberyard carries is its cost: zero. There are no subscriptions, no fixed payments, no royalties in the traditional sense of the word. In fact, interested parties can download its code, although it does not qualify as open source.
The Catch: Two Conditions
So what's the catch? Actually, there are two. On one hand, the Lumberyard license allows the developer to have an internal modified copy of the engine and apply it to their project, but they cannot distribute it, nor create another game engine from that altered code. On the other hand, Lumberyard's monetization comes through AWS. In essence, the Lumberyard license does not allow the use of services that compete with AWS (Azure is the first that comes to mind), however, if a developer decides to set up their own servers with their own hardware, there are no restrictions. Many details remain to be ironed out, but Lumberyard is a reality, and it is already making a lot of noise.
