Meta shuts down Ready at Dawn, one of its biggest VR studios

digitaltrends.com:

Ready at Dawn Studios has been shut down after more than 20 years developing games for platforms like the PSP and the Meta Quest (formerly Oculus Rift).

The company, which had been working on the Lone Echo VR series for parent company Oculus Studios, is closing effective immediately. According to Android Central, which broke the news (former workers confirmed the shutdown on LinkedIn), the cuts were to “ensure that Reality Labs stays within the new budgetary constraints and that Oculus Studios can make a ‘better long-term impact’ in VR development.” The parent company is also encouraging laid off workers to apply to other jobs within Oculus Studios.

Ready at Dawn was originally formed in 2003 by ex-Naughty Dog members to work on PSP games like Daxter and God of War: Chains of Olympus. Its first original IP was the The Order: 1886 in 2015, which was not received well but has retained a sort of weird cult status among players. It hopped into VR development with Lone Echo in 2017, and was subsequently acquired by Oculus Studios. Its last game was Lone Echo 2 in 2021, but it ended Echo VR support to focus on other projects a couple of years later.

The studio was hit by layoffs in 2023 as part of Meta’s larger cuts across the company that affected thousands of workers.

Last week, Meta released its quarterly financials, which showed that Reality Labs — its AR/VR and metaverse segment — reported a $4.49 billion operating loss. The division has reported losses over each of the last four quarters, and since the start of 2019 has lost around $59.5 billion.

Meta executives said in an earnings call that the company will continue to invest in the “full set of ambitions” in Reality Labs, including virtual reality. CFO Susan Li highlighted the Quest 3 headset, along with Meta’s push into AR glasses. A spokesperson told Android Central that we shouldn’t expect more cuts to games development.