Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Is Amazon really getting value > out of all the dev time they are > putting into building game engines? What an odd way to think about projects like these. It seems obvious that the answer is "of course not, yet ". You could have asked the same question about AWS in 2001. Why is a bookstore putting all this effort into some online hosting platform for third parties?
AWS was reusing their existing infrastructure and expertise and opening it up to 3rd parties. I'm unclear why Amazon needs a custom game engine. They must have some plans to enter this area, maybe make their own VR headsets?
Amazon et al may anticipate VR becoming HUGE in the future, so they'd best start creating top-tier easy-access infrastructure & tools for supporting it. Each will want to be THE go-to for customers, just like e-book customers mostly go to Kindle (and a few competitors provide solid alternatives, like iBooks); wasn't that long ago most of us watched the e-book reader market explode onto the scene with lots of competition between B&N, Kobo, Sony, Amazon, Apple, and anyone else that could create a viable e-ink tablet. Similar happened with streaming video, with just a few set-top boxes surviving (Amazon FireTV, Apple TV, Roku, and a few others). All these need a solid, cheap, desirable content-creation platform and distribution system.
Next up is VR: when you're going to render content, what distribution platform will you build for? how will you sell it? what's the go-to store for buying virtual worlds? Bezos & co will want you to choose Amazon Lumberyard &/| Sumerian (and Tim Cook & co will persuade accordingly toward Apple rOS, and Facebook is figuring out how to position Oculus, etc).