Meta shuts down Quest developer Ready at Dawn
Image via Ready at Dawn/Meta.
According to Android Central, developer Ready at Dawn is no more.
The elimination of the studio was reportedly made to keep the equally struggling Reality Labs within new budget restraints. A Meta representative also told the outlet these cuts were not heralding a larger culling for its first-party studios.
Ready at Dawn was founded in 2003 by Naughty Dog and Blizzard Entertainment alums Ru Weerasuriya, Andrea Pessino, and Didier Malenfant. Somewhat fittingly, the studio’s debut title was Daxter, a PlayStation Portable spinoff for Naughty Dog’s platformer series.
In the first half of its lifetime, the studio created PSP spinoffs (and collected bundles) for Sony Santa Monica’s God of War franchise, and the Nintendo Wii port for Okami. In 2015, it launched its own original project: PlayStation 4’s The Order: 1886.
After the console multiplayer brawler Deformers in 2017, Ready at Dawn pivoted to VR. Within that same year, it simultaneously released the adventure games Echo Arena and Lone Echo for the Meta Quest and Oculus Rift.
Oculus Studios acquired the studio in 2020, where it made Echo Combat and Lone Echo II. Last year, it and fellow developer Downpour Interactive cut staff as part of a larger Meta restructuring.
Around this time last year, Echo VR was shut down so Ready at Dawn could focus on “other projects” which will now never come to fruition.
This marks the second studio to close down today, preceded by Finnish studio Shipyard Games.
About the Author(s)
Contributing Editor, GameDeveloper.com
A Kansas City, MO native, Justin Carter has written for numerous sites including IGN, Polygon, and SyFy Wire. In addition to Game Developer, his writing can be found at io9 over on Gizmodo. Don’t ask him about how much gum he’s had, because the answer will be more than he’s willing to admit.
