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Gamebryo is dead

I learned today through the blog of Vincent Scheib (link) that Emergent is pulling the plug. Half of the Gamebryo development team had already been let go last year, but this time the assets and IP will be auctioned, so that’s really the end.

Gamebryo is behind titles like Fallout 3, Civilization IV, Oblivion, Bully, Divinity II, Epic Mickey and was running on hardware ranging from GameCube and PlayStation 2 to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

I have been working with the Gamebryo engine for the first four years of my career, from 2003 to 2007, and I have learned so many things by studying this code that this feels like a big loss.

Gamebryo was not tied to any kind of game, that was both a strength and a weakness. It was a versatile rendering engine and you could make any kind of game out of it, but trying to compete with dedicated FPS/TPS engines like Unreal Engine or CryEngine was ambitious to say the least, and I think that accounts for a large part of the criticism it received over the years.

I guess I signed some NDA back in the days that prevents me from going into details, but if you want to learn more about the design of Gamebryo you should check the book “3D Game Engine Design” (link). The author, David H. Eberly, was one of the engineers behind the creation of the NetImmerse/Gamebryo engine.

My sympathies go to the staff, I hope they will quickly find new positions.