1st party engine devs have been stuck in dev hell, mostly. There are some exceptions, like you said; I’d cite Decima as another success.

But think of EA’s Frostbite, Cyberpunk 2077, Halo Infinite, Clausewitz, BGS, many more. Especially indies that try.

It’s not just that old games crunched, but making a new engine that supports modern platforms and modern hardware is just an immensely complex task. There’s just too much to worry about.

The best success seems to either come from:

• Hyperfocus your engine’s scope to one game niche. Larian’s divinity engine, for example, makes BG3-likes; that’s it, that all it does.

• Engine shop very, very carefully. For instance, KCD2 leaned into CryEngine’s strengths hard, especially the dense, well-lit foilage.

And either case needs a lucky roll of the dice anyway. See: Cyberpunk 2077 in utter dev hell (even if they eventually pulled out) from wrangling their engine. Or the latest Borderlands being a technical wreck even though they basically invented Unreal Engine alongside Epic.