Just for point of reference on the situation, Amazon's Lumberyard engine is actually based on the entire architecture of Crytek's CryEngine. Earlier last year, Crytek was in a bad position financially (similar to what they are again going through), so Amazon offered them a substantial stipend of money to acquire what was essentially a copy of the source code for their engine. Amazon's software department added/changed some features and adjusted the UI a bit, decided on a structure where developers using it have no-royalties or fees (just asking that you use their servers for your game's online functionality and online compute purposes), and then launched it as their own free engine called Lumberyard.

Many of the assets and contents created in CryEngine tend to work directly in Lumberyard without too much hassle because the core of both these engines is designed nearly identically. So considering the serious financial problems that Crytek is going through again, I think that this was a logical and preventative measure that Chris Roberts and the folks developing Star Citizen had to make in order to avoid developing on a dead (unsupported) engine, in the event that Crytek goes under. The move likely required minimal effort/time, especially compared to moving the game to any other engine. And Amazon almost assuredly is involved directly with them because the change of engine for Star Citizen now means they have a AAA title on their engine (and from the way it sounds in the article, this assessment would be correct).

So overall, I believe that Lumberyard is actually the best move they could make at this juncture. And long-run, Amazon is a much more stable company than Crytek ever was, meaning they don't have to worry about losing engine support unless Amazon discontinues the engine for some reason. But it sounds like they've already been working with Amazon over the past year, so this may have been a move a long time in the making.

Inform yourself on the topic first please. The whole conversion was done in two days since Lumberyard is a fully licensed and extended CryEngine version. It has enhanced capabilities especially for networking which will greatly benefit the game. Also support for CryEngine is questionable already due to Crytek's financial situation. It's a smart move and not concerning.

Anything to keep that gravy train rolling.

It honestly isn't. The first switch was from Cryengine 3 to Cryengine (4th gen). My guess is to save themselves on licensing for Lumberyard since its more open-source than CryEngine.

You have no idea what you are talking about, they never switched engines.

@Seafort

Let's not forget that Fallout 4 and any of the Bethesda's major games have been nothing more than glitchfests which are not even technically impressive titles- Skyrim, Fallout 4, Dishonored 2 (Dishonored 1 was an exception)
And they had a bigger team for it as well.

@arkard
Dishonored 2 has a couple of bugs? Ummm.... K

@nitus10
You do know that it is being funded by the PC gamers, so it doesn't need a profit

@optimist

Dishonored 1 and 2 are only published by Bethesda, not made. Also, playing both titles, I would not go anywhere near as to say they are glitch fests. They have a couple of bugs here and there but that is it.

Fallout 4 is what is called an "Action Role Playing Game" and as such is popular with people who like RPG's as well as Action/Adventure and First Person Shooters. In other words, a "mixed bag" that can appeal to people across a range of genres which means allot more sales than if the game was one type of genres.

Fallout 4 also runs on consoles and PC's which means the target audience is pretty large as shown by the fact that it has shipped well over 12 million (approx $750 USD) https://gamerant.com/fallou... (a year ago) or you could try VGChatz http://www.vgchartz.com/ which also confirms that number. Basically a nice profit for all parties concerned.

The following is a statistical diagram of Game Genres Across the World http://www.bigfishgames.com...

Star Citizen is planned to consist of four main components: first-person space combat, mining, exploration, and trading (from Wikipedia). This game is limited to Microsoft Windows and Linux and will only run on high-end PC hardware which effectively cuts out consoles, mobiles, tablets and PC's that are less powerful than the current generation console. In other words "a niche game" in more ways than one.

Whether Star Citizen will turn a profit remains to be seen.