So, StarEngine had been modified to the extent that it was no longer feasible to incorporate upstream CryEngine updates, by magic Germans that were poached from CryTek specifically to make CIG completely independent of any upstream development, but it was both desirable and feasible to incorporate an alternate set of changes from Lumberyard? Makes sense.
Still, congrats to CIG for getting the inconsequential 2.6 out of the door before Christmas, just in time to wring the last bit of money out of the holiday season. Star Marine, a feature no one asked for and which isn't listed anywhere as one of the original (or expanded) goals of SC, is only 18 months late. 2.6 is late even according to the current iteration of the production schedule, let alone previous ones. But if you keep culling features from a patch, eventually you'll have something you can deliver. Incidentally, incremental patching was going to be a 2.6 feature, once upon a time. Although now that they're in bed with Amazon maybe they're getting a break on the self-inflicted bandwidth costs that Roberts has moaned about in the past.
Apologists have been gifted the excuse that CIG achieved nothing of value this year because they were busy with the Lumberyard migration, so expect to hear that official line from the usual suspects from now on.
