Another Legendary Studio Falls Victim to Mass Layoffs. Meta Shuts Down Devs of God of War for PSP and The Order 1886

As a long-time fan and supporter of Ready at Dawn Studios, I find myself disheartened by the recent news of their impending closure. Having grown up playing their masterpieces like Daxtera and the Lone Echo series, it’s hard not to feel a sense of loss for this talented team that brought so much joy into my gaming life.


It appears that the most recent reports suggest that Meta Corporation has disbanded the team at Ready at Dawn Studios, who are renowned for creating games such as Daxtera, Lone Echo series, and the portable God of War duology. Unfortunately, they seem to be joining a growing list of casualties in the video game industry due to widespread job cuts.

As a gamer, I’ve heard the rumor mill churning about Ready at Dawn, but it’s not an official word yet. However, I’ve stumbled upon some intriguing information that hints at a possible shift within Oculus Studios. It seems like Meta is asking employees from Ready at Dawn to join other teams, which suggests that our beloved studio might be closing down, effective immediately.

The intention behind the studio’s closure is a consequence of the choice to cut costs within Reality Labs, the division handling Virtual Reality (VR) production, which encompasses Oculus Studios. Ready at Dawn was part of this team since mid-2020, following their acquisition by Meta (formerly Facebook).

Since that time, the team has primarily been focused on delivering only one new project: Lone Echo, which came out in 2021. Interestingly, Meta’s decision to discontinue Echo VR (through The Medium) in 2023 was intended to give Ready at Dawn the chance to work on a new project. However, this seems to have had the opposite effect, as they haven’t started any other significant projects since then.

Despite the developer not producing any hits for quite some time, fans are displeased with this choice. Some believe that this is yet another instance of successful studios losing momentum following acquisition by large corporations. Additionally, some online commentators claim that the money spent on Ready at Dawn was merely a drop in the ocean compared to the billions of dollars in losses that Reality Labs has been racking up annually for the past four years. In Q2 2024 alone, the company reported a loss of 4.5 billion dollars (NBC), and from 2020 to 2024, it accumulated losses totaling 50 billion dollars (Android Central).

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2024-08-08 16:02