Facebook announced the acquisition of Ready at Dawn Studios.
Lone Echo
Founded by former Blizzard Entertainment and Naughty Dog devs in 2003, Ready at Dawn developed Daxter and God of War: Chains of Olympus for PSP. It’s also responsible for PS4 exclusive The Order: 1886.
In 2017, the studio debuted in the VR space with the release of Lone Echo exclusively for Oculus Rift. The title was followed by its spinoffs Echo Arena and Echo Combat. Currently, Ready at Dawn is working on Lone Echo 2, now as part of Oculus Studios.
In addition to setting the bar for narrative VR experiences, Lone Echo re-wrote the playbook for VR movement mechanics with the debut of Ready At Dawn’s signature innovative continuous locomotion system and full-body IK (inverse kinematics). The zero-g mechanic is used throughout the Echo Games franchise and lends itself well to VR beginners and competitive VR esports alike.
Mike Verdu, Facebook VP of AR/VR content, via a blog post
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. However, according to the announcement, Ready at Dawn will continue to operate as an independent studio, with all current employees joining the Oculus team.
Ready at Dawn is the third studio Facebook has acquired for Oculus recently. Beat Saber developer Beat Games joined Oculus Studios in November 2019, followed by Asgard’s Wrath developer Sanzaru Games in February 2020.