Facebook has been putting its back into expanding into the world of gaming, a market that’s growing every day. Adding to that, the social media giant has acquired Red Dawn Studios, the VR giant that gave us Lone Echo- one of the most developed VR games we currently have.
The studio has been around for a long time, way before VR was a thing. In fact, it had some pretty successful titles in the past, including some notable entries in the very popular God Of War franchise. However, it was Lone Echo that caused the emergence of Red Dawn Studios as one of the most advanced VR companies.
The game is often crowned as the most realistic VR experience a user can have, and has become a part of the E sports culture. Seeing how E sports isn’t very inclusive of VR titles, this feat is a testimony to Red Dawn Studio’s excellence.
The company has been working with Facebook and Oculus for a long time now, acting as a publishing partner. Thus, it makes sense that Red Dawn would look towards a friendly face for forging a partnership, especially when the sequel to Lone Echo is right around the corner. The game, which was initially scheduled for a 2019 launch, has been delayed numerous times, and even Facebook hasn’t given any updates on the title. However, it should launch some time this year.
Facebook being Facebook, hasn’t disclosed the details of the deal but said that it is bringing the entire team onboard. However, there could be another reason for this discretion. The deals that Facebook has disclosed in the past, including the Giphy acquisition and the Facebook Jio deal, have not really sat well with the authorities, who are now investigating them for breach of the antitrust laws.
This isn’t Facebook’s first escapade in the world of VR. The tech giant has already acquired Beat Games, the studio behind Beat Saber, and Sanzaru Games, the developer behind the Rift game Asgard’s Wrath. Deals like these give VR companies a lot of wiggle room to experiment and refine the still-rudimentary technology. On the other hand, they also put Facebook in a great position to acquire a big share of what could be one of the biggest markets in gaming in the coming years.
