Ready at Dawn was founded in 2003 and was just shuttered by Meta on August 7, 2024.
The studio was responsible for several PlayStation titles such as the PlayStation Portable titles Daxter, God of War: Chains of Olympus, and God of War: Ghost of Sparta. The studio went on to develop the beautiful, but short, The Order: 1886 for the PlayStation 4.
In 2017, Ready at Dawn released the VR exclusive title Lone Echo. This narrative adventure title is set aboard a space station orbiting Saturn and featured plenty of exploration, puzzle solving, and plenty of environmental interactivity thanks to VR. It reviewed very well and was ranked among one of the best games of 2017 by several outlets.
Alongside the release of Lone Echo was a competitive multiplayer title, Echo VR or Echo Arena depending on if you acquired it as a stand-alone release. The multiplayer was incredibly high-octane and loved by many VR owners. Unfortunately, in early 2023 the decision was made to shutdown Echo VR servers, with the game going offline in August 2023. At the time of the announcement in early 2023, Echo Arena was stated to have a player count "in the low 10 thousands" by Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth.
In June 2020, Meta acquired Ready at Dawn. They were a part of Oculus Studios under Meta's Reality Labs.
In October 2021, Ready at Dawn released Lone Echo 2. Though a continuation of the first game's overarching narrative, the sequel failed to live up to its predecessor's highs. It still reviewed fairly well but several critics noted that the game had pacing issues, felt like it went on for a bit too long, and that it wasn't challenging enough. However, the high quality of the visuals were unanimously praised by all.
Lone Echo 2 would be the only title developed and released by Ready at Dawn while under Meta's ownership.
Meta is shutting down Ready at Dawn in order to keep the company's Reality Labs division under budget. In July 2024, Meta announced that they were cutting the budget for Reality Labs by 20% by 2026. An internal memo sent to Meta employees by VP Oculus Studios Gio Hunt says that the cuts will help Oculus Studios make a "better long-term impact" with continued VR development.
The Reality Labs business has lost Meta several billion dollars each year. Just this year, Reality Labs posted an operating loss of $4.48 billion in the second quarter. Since late 2020, Reality Labs has hit cumulative losses of $50 billion.
As Ready at Dawn employed less than 50 people, Meta did not have to trigger California's WARN Act. This means Meta did not have to give Ready at Dawn employees a 30-day warning that they were about to be laid off.
Ready at Dawn will still receive severance pay equivalent to other recent Meta layoffs. Meta is also encouraging former Ready at Dawn employees to apply elsewhere within Oculus Studios.
