Ready at Dawn, the developer behind The Order: 1886 and PSP classics such as God of War, has been closed today. The studio, which was part of Meta’s Oculus Studios, has not been closed to save money for the company’s Reality Labs division but rather to make sure the division now stays within tighter budgetary constraints.
Ready at Dawn closure follows mass layoffs
Ready at Dawn first experienced mass layoffs in April 2023 when parent company Meta made sweeping cuts. These layoffs came a mere two months after the servers for the studio’s successful free-to-play game Echo VR were unexpectedly and suddenly closed despite having a player count “in the low 10 thousands.”
Reports from Android Central say the studio has closed today, August 7, with no warning for any of its staff. Despite being located in California, the studio did not employ enough staff to trigger the WARN Act. The act only requires companies to give notice to employees ahead of time if more than 50 employees are laid off in a 30-day period. All affected employees will still get severance packages and have been encouraged to apply to other Oculus studios.
Last month, Meta announced it intended to cut the budget for its Reality Labs division by 20% by 2026. A Meta spokesperson told Android Central that the studio had been closed to make sure the new budgetary constraint can be achieved. It also wants Oculus Studios to make a “better long-term impact” in VR development.
Ready at Dawn was formed in 2003 and PSP hit Daxter was its first game. They followed this with God of War: Chains of Olympus, and God of War: Ghost of Sparta, both of which they then ported to PS3 as the God of War: Origins Collection. In 2015, The Order: 1886 was released for PS4 but the game wasn’t a commercial success despite accumulating a cult following. Its final PlayStation game, multiplayer brawler game Deformers, flopped and the servers were closed in 2018.
The studio then moved into development for Oculus VR platforms and was responsible for the Lone Echo franchise. However, Ready at Dawn hadn’t released a new game since the Meta Quest port of Echo VR in May 2020.