June 23, 2020 – Facebook has recently announced that it has acquired Ready At Dawn, the studio behind VR titles such as Lone Echo and Echo Arena, as well as popular non-VR titles including The Order:1886. Now part of the Oculus Studios team, Ready At Dawn will continue creating immersive VR content for gamers as an independently-operated studio, operating out of its current offices in Irvine, CA, and Portland, OR, with the full support of Facebook and the Oculus Studios team behind it.
Having shipped titles to multiple platforms in the past, Ready At Dawn is a “veteran game developer with some serious chops—as well as a VR pioneer”, according to Facebook. The company has created four titles for the Oculus Platform, including Lone Echo, Echo Arena, Echo Combat, and Lone Echo II, which is currently in development. The Echo Games franchise features the use of zero-g mechanics, which Facebook states lends itself well to VR beginners and competitive VR esports alike.
The studio is currently working on Lone Echo II, and is not announcing future projects. Facebook did state however that Ready At Dawn has “exciting plans” for future games that it hopes to bring to as many people as possible, but the company is not ready to share details at this time. The company did note that Ready At Dawn will continue to support and iterate on the Oculus Quest platform.
Commenting on whether it plans to acquire other studios, Facebook noted in a blog post: “We’re exploring many ways to accelerate VR, and we have awesome and innovative plans for the next few years of gaming.” Facebook also confirmed that the entire Ready At Dawn team will be joining the Oculus Studios team.
Image credit: Ready At Dawn
About the author
Sam Sprigg
Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.
