Facebook Acquires Ready At Dawn Studios, Developer of Games Like God of War: Origins

Oculus Studios has announced that developer Ready At Dawn has been acquired by Facebook. The studio will apparently remain independently-operated, and will continue to create new VR games for the company. Ready At Dawn is responsible for games such as God of War: Origins Collection and Lone Echo, and is currently developing Lone Echo II. According to Oculus, the entire team at Ready At Dawn will make the transition, and the company will maintain its current offices, as well. Given the fact that Ready At Dawn has developed four Oculus games since 2017, the move certainly makes a lot of sense.

In 2014, Facebook acquired Oculus for $2.3 billion. Since then, Facebook has made a handful of acquisitions to secure development for the VR platform. Last November, Facebook purchased Beat Games, the developer behind the popular VR game, Beat Saber. In February, Sanzaru Games was also purchased by Facebook. The addition of Ready At Dawn shows that Facebook remains dedicated to expanding interest in VR gaming.

Of course, Facebook has a bit of an uphill battle, as VR remains a rather niche part of the video game industry. The technology is fairly expensive, and some users find VR games to be nausea-inducing. Still, this year has seen video game companies continuing to make an effort to push VR into the mainstream. Major VR releases such as Half-Life: Alyx, Marvel’s Iron Man VR, and Star Wars: Squadrons prove that there’s still quite a bit of interest in expanding the potential audience for VR. Whether or not VR will be able to break into the mainstream in a significant fashion, however, remains to be seen. If any company has the money to continue investing in the technology’s future, however, it’s definitely Facebook.

It’s certainly been an interesting day of news for Facebook Gaming. Earlier, Microsoft announced the end of its livestreaming service Mixer. The company will attempt to transition users, partners, and streamers over to Facebook Gaming, but it appears that Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek declined substantial offers from the company. It remains to be seen which streamers will move over to Facebook Gaming, but Ninja and Shroud could have been a massive boon.

Are you a fan of Ready At Dawn’s previous titles? What do you think of Facebook’s acquisition of the developer? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!