Summary
A new report reveals that Meta has unfortunately shutteredThe Order: 1886developerReady At Dawn. Over the course of its 21-year history,Ready At Dawnnot only worked on immersive VR narrative titles like theLone Echoseries, but also shepherded a handful of the PlayStation Portable’s most well-regarded games, such asDaxter,God of War: Chains of Olympus, andGod of War: Ghost of Sparta.
Founded by Naughty Dog alums in 2003, Ready At Dawn worked with PlayStation in a second-party capacity for several years, with the duo’s last collaborative effort being2015’s graphically impressiveThe Order: 1886. The studio also tried its hand atDeformers, an independently produced multiplayer project back in 2017, but found little in the way of critical and commercial success. In June 2020, Meta surprisingly acquired Ready At Dawn to help bolster the company’s lineup of VR development teams under the Reality Labs umbrella.
Since then,Ready At Dawn has only released 2021’sLone Echo 2, a sequel to its 2017 award-winning sci-fi narrative game, for Oculus and Rift platforms on PC. Unfortunately, though, it appears the widespread games industry layoffs have caught up with the longstanding team, asAndroid Central reportsthat Meta will shutter Ready At Dawn, effective immediately. According to a Meta spokesperson, this decision was apparently made to ensure Oculus Studios can make a “better long-term impact” on VR development and that Reality Labs doesn’t exceed its reduced financial constraints, as Meta reportedly cut the division’s short-term funding by 20% last month.
Meta Says It’s Still Confident in VR Despite Ready At Dawn Closure
Meta did clarify that Ready At Dawn’s closure shouldn’t be taken as a sign of shaky confidence in VR development by the company, and it’s still committed to its VR platforms. Regardless, the bleak news has left fans ofReady At Dawn’s gamesquite disappointed, especially those looking forward to more entries in theLone Echofranchise. It also adds another casualty to 2024’s growing list of game studio closures and mass layoffs. Thankfully, Meta has at least encouraged Ready At Dawn’s former developers to apply elsewhere within Oculus Studios, as the company wants to retain as much talent as possible.
It’s difficult to predict how many more layoffs and studio closures the games industry needs to course-correct after 2020’s hiring boom, but the fact that a fairly established name like Ready At Dawn couldn’t escape the chopping board is concerning. One can only hope the affected employees get back on their feet soon, but suffice it to say,the heavily-requested sequel toThe Order: 1886will likely never happen now.
