Amazon open sources its Lumberyard game engine; the project will be overseen by the Linux Foundation and now be called the Open 3D Engine
Removed instructions for the 3rdParty zip file and downloader URL. James Batchelor / GamesIndustry.biz : Our Machinery plans to “take a significant chunk of the engine market” Amazon Web Services : Built for Builders: The Story of AWS and Open 3D Engine - Developer Preview Jennifer Cloer / PR Newswire : Linux Foundation to Form New Open 3D Foundation New World Notes : With Amazon's Lumberyard Going Open Source, The Time Is Now For A Metaverse Framework Tweets: @awsgametech : Bring real-time 3D environments to life with the Linux Foundation and their Open 3D Foundation, with AWS seeding the foundation with the Open 3D Engine (O3DE) - a AAA-capable, cross platform open source game engine available under an Apache 2.0 license. https://aws.amazon.com/... @thelinuxexp : That's interesting, and unexpected from a company like Amazon! https://venturebeat.com/... Theo Priestley / @tprstly : Well this is an interesting shift indeed. Amazon to make Lumberyard open source. #gamedev https://venturebeat.com/... Mcc / @mcclure111 : OK, so if you haven't been following: - Amazon licenses a 2015 version of CryEngine, forks it - They release it as quasi-open source where it's free to use but you're required to use AWS for web hosting - Literally no one takes the offer - Amazon gives up, releases as Apache2 OSS https://twitter.com/... @chrisdeleon : On the one hand, great, cool beans On the other hand, from a company this size and so invested it's a sign they couldn't see an adequately profitable future for it, figure out anything to do to improve it, and admitting it was nearly never the best option https://venturebeat.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Lumberyard began as Amazon's free cross-platform engine with Twitch integration, and Cloud Imperium Games later selected it for Star Citizen and Squadron 42. Amazon is now moving that codebase into a Linux Foundation-led home as the Open 3D Engine, rather than keeping it as a branded Amazon product.
The move also fits AWS's broader use of open-source projects, a strategy that had drawn developer criticism over AWS renting access to others' work. A foundation-led project gives the engine a more explicitly shared governance structure.
First-order effects
- The Linux Foundation's new Open 3D Foundation becomes the project steward, while Amazon and AWS shift from sole brand owners to seed backers of an Apache 2.0-licensed engine.
- Game developers using the Lumberyard-based engine chosen by Cloud Imperium Games gain a rebranded upstream project under foundation oversight rather than an Amazon-only product line.
Second-order effects
- Our Machinery's stated aim to win a significant share of the engine market puts it in more direct competition with an openly licensed, foundation-governed Open 3D Engine.
- AWS can support the engine's developer ecosystem without making adoption synonymous with Amazon ownership, a meaningful response to concerns raised around AWS's approach to open-source projects.
Third-order effects
- If outside contributors and commercial users coalesce around the Open 3D Foundation, game-engine competition shifts further toward governance, contributor ecosystems, and services around freely available core technology.
- The arrangement points to a model in which cloud providers use foundation stewardship to distribute developer platforms while separating ecosystem participation from control of the underlying project.
The trend: Developer-platform vendors are increasingly using independent foundation governance to turn proprietary tools into broader ecosystems while retaining a role as commercial backers.