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Kotaku: Crytek signs huge licensing deal with Amazon for astronomical $50-$70M fee

T

The Shogun

Banned
Nirolak said:
So uh, why would you pay $50-$70 million for CryEngine?

Like you could probably get an Unreal Engine 4 group license for $10-$15 million and use it for all their games.

Unity would be vastly cheaper than even that.
Click to expand...

Yeah I feel like there must be a missing element to this story. Is Amazon making a bigger move here? Is Crytek developing content for them? Does Amazon now own part of Crytek?

This deal on the surface makes no sense to me
 
K

Kinyou

Member
Hexa said:
Is Amazon still trying to push the Kindle fire as a gaming console? What ever happened to Double Helix?
Click to expand...
The Fire still looks like a glorified Ouya. I'd like to believe they have more up their sleeves but I don't think that's likely.
 
S

Somnid

Member
Nirolak said:
So uh, why would you pay $50-$70 million for CryEngine?

Like you could probably get an Unreal Engine 4 group license for $10-$15 million and use it for all their games.

Unity would be vastly cheaper than even that.
Click to expand...

I'd imagine this is not necessarily for internal use but to give away as an option to developers on Amazon devices.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
The Shogun said:
Yeah I feel like there must be a missing element to this story. Is Amazon making a bigger move here? Is Crytek developing content for them? Does Amazon now own part of Crytek?

This deal on the surface makes no sense to me
Click to expand...

Like, to even try to make something make sense out of this:

1.) It'd have to be an in-perpetuity license with endless free support.

2.) Crytek would presumably make content for them and this would help fund some of that.

3.) They'd probably own part of Crytek to help ensure their investment.

Somnid said:
I'd imagine this is not necessarily for internal use but to give away as an option to developers on Amazon devices.
Click to expand...

Okay that would also make sense. The ability to give out a free license to every developer.

I'm not sure why you wouldn't just do another Unity deal at that point though.
 
P

Pudge

Member
Amazon is just dumping money into a giant bonfire at this point when it comes to games. I wonder how much money the Flappy Bird guy squeezed out of them.
 
X

Xando

Member
Inb4 Amazon buys Xbox.

50-70m seems to high for a licensing deal. They're planning something bigger.
 
E

Elandyll

Banned
Maybe that includes some IPs as well? (I think Crytek has Crysis and Ryse)

Because if it's just to use an engine (even exclusively), I don't quite get it.
 
K

Krejlooc

Banned
HK-47 said:
Maybe the contract has very favorable terms you wouldnt be able to wrangle out of Epic or Unity?
Click to expand...

Epic is playing hardball. As an example, we are using ue4 completely free right now. I mean entirely, totally free - no licensing cost or royalties to be owed.

Im guessing this is less about the engine and more about very close support.
 
Compsiox

Compsiox

Banned
Krejlooc said:
Epic is playing hardball. As an example, we are using ue4 completely free right now. I mean entirely, totally free - no licensing cost or royalties to be owed.

Im guessing this is less about the engine and more about very close support.
Click to expand...

Welcome back buddy.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Krejlooc said:
Epic is playing hardball. As an example, we are using ue4 completely free right now. I mean entirely, totally free - no licensing cost or royalties to be owed.

Im guessing this is less about the engine and more about very close support.
Click to expand...

Like you could just poach 10 of Crytek's top staff and save gazillions of dollars if you needed that much support.
 
T

The Shogun

Banned
Nirolak said:
Like, to even try to make something make sense out of this:

1.) It'd have to be an in-perpetuity license with endless free support.

2.) Crytek would presumably make content for them and this would help fund some of that.

3.) They'd probably own part of Crytek to help ensure their investment.
Click to expand...

Yep something like this is the only way I can see a deal like this working. On the surface that price tage makes no sense for a strictly licensing CryEngine deal.
 
K

Krejlooc

Banned
Nirolak said:
Like you could just poach 10 of Crytek's top staff and save gazillions of dollars if you needed that much support.
Click to expand...

Perhaps whatever support is being offered in this hypothetical web isnt entirely owned by crytek, but rather partners they themselves license from. Similar to the way Oculus themselves work.

I have no idea what this is about, mind you, but considering the way tim sweeney is courting people to ue4 with very favorable licensing, this just has to be more than an engine.
 
S

Somnid

Member
Nirolak said:
Okay that would also make sense. The ability to give out a free license to every developer.

I'm not sure why you wouldn't just do another Unity deal at that point though.
Click to expand...

Perhaps they can get specific hardware optimization or tooling support.
 
S

Sydle

Member
Good for Crytek, I suppose. Can't imagine why Amazon is doing it unless this is some kind of long-term support contract, or maybe a partnership to further develop the CryEngine together and a foot in the door for Amazon on a long-term plan to be a middleware player.

Whatever the case, they've been poaching game talent for a while and I want to see what they've been working on.
 
S

Shiggy

Member
My friend's father works at Amazon and he said that they did this deal specifically for Double Helix Games. He insisted that they got a big deal recently with Konami and Guillermo del Toro because Konami was very satisfied with their work on Silent Hill Homecoming.

:p
 
Peterthumpa

Peterthumpa

Member
Everytime that I read something related to a tech company buying another tech company for X, I remember the Facebook / Whatsapp deal.

I mean, 19 BILLION for a chat app. Talk about dat market presence and information value.
 
Chiggs

Chiggs

Gold Member
I know this is like medicine after death, but their expansion was handled really poorly. They should have stuck with PC and produced a track record of solid titles before really branching out to console. Crysis 2 was mediocre and Crysis 3 was just bad.

Crytek is a company without an identity.
 
K

Krejlooc

Banned
Crytek has been doing a lot of behind the scenes work with vr. They wanted to hire our hl2vr team outright about a year ago, as an example. I wonder if this is related to that stuff.
 
M

megalowho

Member
Not clear on what the endgame is for either company but Crytek must have some pretty talented folks in the sales department. CryEngine wasn't turning heads compared to the competition and with all the other financial/management issues going on they probably needed a big deal like this to survive.

Hopefully this puts a firm end to any and all payroll shenanigans that were going on over there. As an outsider it doesn't feel like Crytek deserves a new lease on life, games have been underwhelming and employee testimonials were damning, but at least folks will be able to keep their jobs and get paid on time.
 
C

CTLance

Member
This is clearly an indication that I'll be playing Super Kindle Bros and Halo on my Primebox come 2020.

Seriously though, that's a lot of moolah for an engine license. Wonder what the backroom terms are.
 
S

Sulik2

Member
This is a weird purchase. I can't help, but think Amazon is about to announce a VR initiative or they are about to blow up the home console space with their own console.
 
K

Krakn3Dfx

Member
That FireTV early adopter purchase about to pay off clearly.

200_s.gif
 
T

The Shogun

Banned
Krejlooc said:
Crytek has been doing a lot of behind the scenes work with vr. They wanted to hire our hl2vr team outright about a year ago, as an example. I wonder if this is related to that stuff.
Click to expand...

Hmmmm now thats interesting. Could be one of the elements at play here.
 
A

Amir0x

Banned
Looks like they might have been able to avoid the neverending developer pit that has been impacting this industry. Live another day! Congrats to all the employees there.

Now make Crysis next like the first game, k thx
 
S

SteveWinwood

Member
thats a lot of fucking money

so much so im willing to call bullshit on either of his sources, especially when the range is big enough to still be honestly too much money alone
 
K

KKRT00

Member
Could be not games related, but movie industry related? Did Amazon have some plans to produce movies or something similar?
 
N

Neuromancer

Member
I wonder if there's any chance of them putting out a proper console, or publishing games for other platforms. The Cryengine would wasted on glorified mobile games.

Krejlooc said:
Crytek has been doing a lot of behind the scenes work with vr. They wanted to hire our hl2vr team outright about a year ago, as an example. I wonder if this is related to that stuff.
Click to expand...
Hmm very interesting. They could also have their own headset coming up.
 
A

androvsky

Member
Somnid said:
I'd imagine this is not necessarily for internal use but to give away as an option to developers on Amazon devices.
Click to expand...

Makes sense. I'd lean towards Amazon devices being the Amazon console with VR, and Crytek is making the SDK and handling support. Given how much Facebook pumped into Oculus, the Amazon shareholders would probably see this as a good deal even if it's a tiny piece of the puzzle.

SteveWinwood said:
thats a lot of fucking money

so much so im willing to call bullshit on either of his sources, especially when the range is big enough to still be honestly too much money alone
Click to expand...
It could simply be a very complicated contract with a lot of bonus and penalty structures, and one of the sources is being more optimistic about the situation a year or two down the road. Or bullshit, yes. :)
 
K

Krakn3Dfx

Member
Ryse 2: Angry Romans, exclusive to the FireTV.

Using the FireTV remote, fling Romans at authentic Celtic structures.
 
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