Star Citizen Switches Engine to Amazon's Lumberyard
By Boston Blake 22 December 2016
Star Citizen developer announces it’s moving the open-galaxy space sim from Crytek’s CryEngine to Amazon’s Lumberyard, with the newest update built on the new engine.
Since it first started crowdfunding more than four years ago, Star Citizen has been considered one of the most ambitious games ever. The open-galaxy game looks to mold together numerous genres into a brand new, exploratory game genre that looks to reinvent simulation gaming.
To make sure they deliver the best experience possible, the team at Roberts Space Industries is always hunting for ways to enhance Star Citizen for players. According to a new announcement from the company, Star Citizen is moving from Crytek’s CryEngine to Amazon’s Lumberyard gaming engine to do just that.
In a press release, studio head Chris Roberts offered some thoughts on why the team decided to make the change. Roberts said:
“We’ve been working with Amazon for more than a year, as we have been looking for a technology leader to partner with for the long term future of Star Citizen and Squadron 42. Lumberyard provides groundbreaking technology features for online games. Because we share a common technical vision, it has been a very smooth and easy transition to Lumberyard.”
While this is likely good news for the future of Star Citizen, it’ll undoubtedly ruffle a few feathers among backers of the title. The game has already been delayed well past its original launch timeline, and the shift from CryEngine to Lumberyard will only add more wait time to an already long delay.
Granted, this may be a move more out of necessity than pure choice. Crytek recently announced it is shuttering five of its studios and reorganizing its efforts to focus on its core technologies. With the shakeup happening within Crytek, the team at Roberts Space Industries likely thought it best to forgo potential issues with CryEngine and use a game engine build by a more solid company, like Amazon.
The announcement said the latest Star Citizen update, known as 2.6 Alpha, will run on Lumberyard. Naturally, there will be a few kinks that need to be worked out while the development team hones in on the abilities and limitations of Lumberyard, so players should likely expect some additional updates and fixes to come in the near future.
One of the newest modules for Star Citizen, dubbed Squadron 42, focuses on the single-player adventure aspect of the game. Originally due out this year, the module has since been delayed into 2017, a trend that’s become all too familiar for the space simulation game. Squadron 42 will make use of the Lumberyard engine when it’s released next year.
Hopefully the transition from CryEngine to Lumberyard will be smooth, and not cause any additional frustration for players. Time will tell how this change affects the overall potential of the title, and the timeline for its eventual full release.
What do you think about Star Citizen moving from CryEngine to Lumberyard?
Star Citizen is available now in a development state on PC.
