Ready at Dawn Developer Shut Down by Meta

Ready at Dawn, the game developer known for titles such as The Order: 1886 and the God of War series for PSP, has been closed down by Meta, the parent company of Oculus Studios. The closure is not a cost-saving measure but rather a strategic decision to align with tighter budgetary constraints within Meta’s Reality Labs division.

Ready at Dawn Faces Layoffs

Back in April 2023, Ready at Dawn experienced significant layoffs when Meta implemented widespread cuts across the company. This came shortly after the unexpected closure of the servers for Echo VR, a popular free-to-play game developed by the studio. Despite having a player count in the tens of thousands, the game’s servers were shut down abruptly.

Today, August 7, the studio closed its doors without any prior warning to its employees. Located in California, Ready at Dawn did not meet the threshold to trigger the WARN Act, which requires companies to notify employees in advance of layoffs exceeding 50 individuals within a 30-day period. Affected employees will still receive severance packages and are encouraged to explore opportunities within other Oculus studios.

Meta’s Budget Cuts Lead to Closure

Meta recently announced its plans to reduce the budget of the Reality Labs division by 20% by 2026. A spokesperson from Meta confirmed that the closure of Ready at Dawn was in line with these budgetary constraints and aimed at ensuring a more significant impact on VR development through Oculus Studios in the long term.

Established in 2003, Ready at Dawn gained recognition for titles like Daxter and the God of War series on PSP. The studio later released The Order: 1886 for PS4 in 2015, followed by the multiplayer brawler game Deformers in 2018, which did not perform well commercially and had its servers shut down.

Transitioning to Oculus VR platforms, Ready at Dawn worked on the Lone Echo franchise but had not launched any new games since the Meta Quest port of Echo VR in May 2020.