No explanation.
Users were completely blindsided to find an email regarding the in-development game engine The Machinery. The email, from devs Our Machinery, announced that their Unreal Engine/Unity alternative was to be scrapped. The email read:
Unfortunately, we’ve reached a point where it’s no longer possible for us to continue in the current direction. Per Section 14 of the End User License Agreement, the development of The Machinery will cease, we will no longer offer GitHub access, all licenses are terminated as of 14 days after the date of this notice, and you are requested to delete The Machinery source code and binaries. You will receive a full refund of your annual license payment through Gumroad.
We really appreciated you being a part of the Our Machinery Community. We hope we have been helpful in some way to your development needs.
Coincidentally, the part that read “you are requested to delete The Machinery source code and binaries” made for the most contention. Users over on Hacker News did some digging and found that the EULA had been updated in late July in include a clause requiring users to “destroy any copies of the Service or Content in your possession, custody or control”. This was not present in previous versions of the EULA, but it did have a provision allowing them to update the Agreement as they saw fit.
In short, whatever caused the devs to kill their project was probably known at least that far ahead of the announcement. And since, almost all social media presence for the developers and the engine have been wiped out. To be honest, we may never find out what caused the whole thing to go up in smoke.
Source: PC Gamer
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