Facebook has acquired Downpour Interactive, the studio behind the virtual reality game Onward

New video game development studio joins Facebook. This time, it’s Downpour Interactive, the indie studio behind himOnwards. Mike Verdu, Facebook’s vice president of AR / VR content, announced the news late April 30th. This multiplayer shooting game, geared towards military simulation and pushing realism to the extreme, was born in 2016 from the will of one man, Dante Buckley. He wanted to change this genre, and make it popular among others Counter strike, In virtual reality.

Popular game on Oculus Quest
SuccessOnwards Since then, Dante Buckley has established a studio to continue expanding it with new features. Like the majority of developers, Downpour Interactive quickly realized the potential of Oculus Quest and brought the game to it in 2019 with the help of Coatsink Studio. It has been a tough job but it has also been a wise choice since thenOnwards He broke $ 10 million in revenue on Quest three months ago.

The acquisition of the studio by Facebook, the size of which has not been reported, should allow him to grow the game more ambitiously, and ultimately initiate the development of other titles. The entire Downpour Interactive team will join Oculus Studios. Facebook also clarified that the game will still be supported on all platforms it is currently on, including Steam.

The fourth acquisition in the context of market consolidation
This acquisition is part of Facebook’s dear “social” logic because it Onwards It has a very active community, and will complement its three previous acquisitions: Beat Games, Sanzaru Games, and Ready at Dawn. The company has also entered into partnerships with Ubisoft over licenses. Doctrine killer And the Splinter cellAs well as with Capcom to release a copy of Resident Evil 4 Completely redesigned for virtual reality (Developed by Armature Studio).

This strategy is part of the general trend of consolidation into the video game market over the past five years, which recently led to Microsoft’s acquisition of Zenimax for $ 7.5 billion, or even Insomniac Games (game developer). The storm) By Sony in 2019.