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Coatsink

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Coatsink
Information
Industry Video games, Virtual reality
Founded December 2009
Founder Tom Beardsmore, Paul Crabb
Headquarters Gateshead, England, United Kingdom
Notable Personnel Richard Snowdon (CEO)
Products Esper, Augmented Empire, Shadow Point, Jurassic World Aftermath, Men in Black: Most Wanted
Parent Thunderful Group (Atari)
Website https://www.coatsink.com


Coatsink (legal name Coatsink Software Ltd) is a British video game developer and publisher that has made virtual reality games since the Samsung Gear VR era. Tom Beardsmore and Paul Crabb founded the studio in Sunderland in December 2009.[1] Its VR work includes the Esper puzzle games, the turn-based strategy game Augmented Empire, the Oculus Quest launch title Shadow Point and the licensed games Jurassic World Aftermath and Men in Black: Most Wanted. It also published the Quest version of Onward and works as a co-development studio for other companies.[2][3]

The Swedish company Thunderful Group bought Coatsink in October 2020.[1] Atari first invested in Thunderful in August 2025 and held about 90.2 percent of it by February 2026; Coatsink's website now describes the studio as a wholly owned subsidiary of Atari.[2][4][5] As of 2026 the site gives its address as the Northern Design Centre in Gateshead.[2]

Reviewed 15 October 2026. Checked every dated fact, figure, name, price, quote and ownership claim against the cited Thunderful, Atari, Coatsink, Oculus/Meta, Camouflaj, Steam, PlayStation and press sources; wiki links, categories and citation format. About review dates.

History

Founding and first VR games

In a 2017 interview published on the Oculus developer blog, Beardsmore and Crabb said the studio's first project was the console game Shu. After Shu the team had grown to eight people, and it then released its first VR game, Esper.[6] In a 2017 post on the Oculus blog, Coatsink's Jack Sanderson said that Esper was a launch title for the Gear VR Innovator Edition.[7] In the game the player uses gaze control to move balls, blocks and other objects by telekinesis to solve puzzles.[8] Coatsink was also supported by public funding schemes in its early years. It worked with the team behind the UK Games Fund on that fund's predecessor, The Prototype Fund, in 2011, and in 2015 the UK Games Fund selected it for support to develop its own IP, Vantage Point.[9]

The sequel, Esper 2, came out for Gear VR on 10 December 2015. Engadget noted that the actor Nick Frost voiced a character in it.[10] Esper 2 reached the Oculus Rift in March 2016. On 1 September 2016 Coatsink replaced it on the Oculus Store with Esper: The Collection, which bundled both games for 14.99 US dollars, and existing owners of Esper 2 received the first game free.[11] In June and July 2018 Coatsink brought Esper to PlayStation VR, Oculus Go, Xiaomi Mi VR and, through Steam, the HTC Vive. By then it was also available for Windows Mixed Reality headsets. Road to VR quoted Beardsmore, then the CEO, as saying that Esper was "where the VR journey began for Coatsink."[8]

Growth as an Oculus partner

In a March 2017 interview with MCV, chief operating officer Eddie Beardsmore, Tom Beardsmore's brother, said that Coatsink had worked in VR since the Oculus Kickstarter and was a partner developer of Oculus. He said the team had grown from around 12 people when he joined, roughly two years earlier, to 43 plus five interns. The studio had three VR projects in development at the time, one of them Augmented Empire. It had also built the back-end multiplayer for the non-VR game Gang Beasts.[12] The Oculus developer blog put the studio at 50 people in September 2017.[6]

Augmented Empire was released for Gear VR on 13 July 2017 at 9.99 US dollars. UploadVR called it an Oculus Studios title. It is a turn-based strategy game set on the island of New Savannah, and its cast included Nick Frost and Kate Mulgrew.[13] According to the developers, it began as a tabletop-perspective demo that a programmer built while the team was finishing Esper 2. The game was built in Unity and used gaze for selecting tiles and units, with the Gear VR Controller serving as a button input.[6] The studio also made A Night Sky, a free Gear VR release from Coatsink and Oculus Studios that came out alongside the Gear VR controller in April 2017.[14] It began with connecting stars as its only game element and later added interactive objects, more mini-games and paid content packs.[7]

In March 2018, at GDC, Coatsink showed They Suspect Nothing, which UploadVR described as its first game developed specifically for the Oculus Go.[15] The game launched on Oculus Go and Gear VR in May 2018, and a free expansion, "Overclocked", added eight mini-games on 3 August 2018.[16]

Coatsink unveiled Shadow Point at GDC 2019 as a day-one launch title for the Oculus Quest. The room-scale puzzle game is narrated throughout by Patrick Stewart.[17] It was released in May 2019 for Quest and Rift at 19.99 US dollars with cross-buy. In its review, UploadVR recommended the game but wrote that Stewart's role was underused.[18] Coatsink reported in July 2019 that the game had been shortlisted for Game of the Year at the VR Awards.[19]

Coatsink also worked as a publisher. It published the Oculus Quest version of Downpour Interactive's tactical shooter Onward, which went on sale in Early Access on 30 July 2020 at 25 US dollars, with cross-play with Rift and SteamVR players.[3]

Thunderful ownership

Thunderful Group announced on 5 October 2020 that it had acquired all of Coatsink Software Ltd. It paid 23 million pounds up front, half in cash and half in new Thunderful shares. An earn-out of up to 42.5 million pounds depended on Coatsink's results in 2021 and 2022, so the deal could reach 65.5 million pounds in total. The announcement said Coatsink would remain an independent development studio, reported as part of Thunderful Games. The announcement listed Shadow Point, Augmented Empire, the Gang Beasts development partnership and the Onward publishing partnership among its work. Five in-house projects were in development at the time, Jurassic World Aftermath and Transformers: Battlegrounds among them.[1]

Jurassic World Aftermath, a Quest game built around hiding from and sneaking past dinosaurs, developed by Coatsink and published by Oculus Studios, was released in two parts. Part 1 launched on 17 December 2020 at 25 US dollars, and Part 2 followed on 30 September 2021 as 15 US dollar paid content. Road to VR scored the combined game 7.9 out of 10.[20] Coatsink published Jurassic World Aftermath Collection, which combines both parts, for PlayStation VR2 on 21 February 2023. Sony's store page lists added volumetric lighting, enhanced post-processing and faster loading for that version.[21]

Camouflaj studio head Ryan Payton's launch letter for Batman: Arkham Shadow (October 2024) named Coatsink among the outside teams that worked with Camouflaj on the game.[22] In November 2024 Coatsink released a remastered Augmented Empire for Meta Quest at 9.99 US dollars. The original Go and Gear VR version had long been delisted. The remaster added 4K textures on Meta Quest 3 and 2K textures on Meta Quest 2, mixed reality support with a resizable map placed in the room, and hand tracking.[23][24] A flatscreen PC version followed on Steam on 16 April 2025.[25]

Leadership change, restructuring and Atari

PCGamesInsider reported on 14 August 2025 that CEO Tom Beardsmore, CDO Paul Crabb and COO Eddie Beardsmore would leave before the end of the year. Richard Snowdon, who joined Coatsink in 2015 as head of production and became head of studio in 2022, was named the new CEO.[26]

Men in Black: Most Wanted, developed by Coatsink and published by Sony Pictures Virtual Reality, was released for Meta Quest on 5 December 2025 at 24.99 US dollars. The player is Agent I, partnered with Agent L, in a story set in the 1990s. UploadVR called it "an enjoyable, if somewhat lightweight, action game."[27][28]

On 24 November 2025 Thunderful announced a restructuring of its co-development segment, which Coatsink leads. About 50 to 60 roles, roughly half of the workforce, were put at risk of redundancy. Thunderful said Coatsink's largest projects were finishing and the co-development market had become harder.[29]

Atari made its first investment in Thunderful in August 2025. On 19 December 2025 it announced a plan to buy the rest of the group, beginning with a directed issue of 350 million new shares at 0.10 Swedish kronor each and followed by an offer of 0.30 kronor per share for the remaining shares.[4] Thunderful shareholders approved the share issue on 26 January 2026. Afterwards Atari held about 90.2 percent of Thunderful's shares and votes. On 9 February 2026 Atari began a compulsory redemption of the remaining shares, and Thunderful applied to delist from Nasdaq First North.[5]

Coatsink's next Quest game, Skytail, was released on 26 March 2026. It is a flight adventure in which the player rides a bird-like companion and uses gesture-controlled telekinesis against enemies.[30][31]

VR games

Title Year Platforms Coatsink role and notes
Esper 2015 Samsung Gear VR; later Rift, Windows Mixed Reality, PlayStation VR, Oculus Go, HTC Vive Developer; telekinesis puzzle game[8]
Esper 2 2015 Samsung Gear VR; Oculus Rift (March 2016) Developer; bundled as Esper: The Collection on Rift in 2016[10][11]
Augmented Empire 2017 Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Go Developer; turn-based tactical game[13][23]
A Night Sky 2017 Samsung Gear VR Developer with Oculus Studios; free, later paid content packs[14][7]
They Suspect Nothing 2018 Oculus Go, Samsung Gear VR Developer[16]
Shadow Point 2019 Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift Developer; Quest launch title narrated by Patrick Stewart[17][18]
Onward (Quest version) 2020 Oculus Quest Publisher; developed by Downpour Interactive[3]
Jurassic World Aftermath Part 1 and Part 2 2020, 2021 Oculus Quest Developer; published by Oculus Studios[20]
Jurassic World Aftermath Collection 2023 PlayStation VR2 Publisher of the PS VR2 version[21]
Batman: Arkham Shadow 2024 Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest 3S Outside partner credited by Camouflaj[22][32]
Augmented Empire (remaster) 2024 Meta Quest Developer; mixed reality and hand tracking support[24]
Men in Black: Most Wanted 2025 Meta Quest Developer; published by Sony Pictures Virtual Reality[27]
Skytail 2026 Meta Quest Developer and publisher[30][31]

Coatsink's non-VR work includes Shu, Transformers: Battlegrounds and the flatscreen PC release of Augmented Empire.[6][1][25]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Thunderful Group acquires Coatsink Software". Thunderful Group. 2020-10-05. https://thunderfulgroup.com/news-room/press-releases/2020-10-05-thunderful-group-acquires-coatsink-software/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "About Coatsink". Coatsink. https://www.coatsink.com/about. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Scott Hayden (2020-06-30). "'Onward' is Coming to Oculus Quest July 30th with PC VR Cross-play, Trailer Here". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/onward-oculus-quest-release-date-july/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Atari intends to acquire remaining 18% stake in Thunderful Group and request for its delisting from Nasdaq First North Growth Market in Stockholm". Webdisclosure. Atari. 2025-12-19. https://webdisclosure.com/press-release/atari-epa-ata-atari-intends-to-acquire-remaining-18-stake-in-thunderful-group-and-request-for-its-delisting-from-nasdaq-first-north-growth-market-in-stockholm-vLilw4ou5AY. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Atari initiates compulsory redemption and Thunderful Group applies for delisting from Nasdaq First North". Thunderful Group. 2026-02-09. https://thunderfulgroup.com/news-room/press-releases/2026-02-09-atari-initiates-compulsory-redemption-and-thunderful-group-applies-for-delisting-from-nasdaq-first-north/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "Developer Perspectives: Coatsink - Augmented Empire". Meta Horizon developer blog. Oculus VR. 2017-09-08. https://developers.meta.com/horizon/blog/developer-perspectives-coatsink-augmented-empire/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "Behind the Scenes with Coatsink, Plus Brand-New Content and a Holiday Sale for 'A Night Sky'". Meta Quest Blog. Meta Platforms. 2017-11-21. https://www.meta.com/blog/behind-the-scenes-with-coatsink-plus-brand-new-content-and-a-holiday-sale-for-a-night-sky/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Scott Hayden (2018-06-25). "Telekinetic Puzzle 'Esper' to Launch on PSVR & Oculus Go This Week, HTC Vive in July". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/telekinetic-puzzle-esper-launch-psvr-oculus-go-week-htc-vive-july/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  9. ↑ "UKGF funded company acquired for 23 million". UK Games Fund. 2020-10-08. https://ukgamesfund.com/ukgfnews/funded-company-acquired-for-23-million/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Timothy J. Seppala (2015-12-09). "Comedian Nick Frost makes his Gear VR debut in 'Esper 2'". Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/2015-12-09-esper-2-gear-vr-nick-frost.html. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Anthony Pamias (2016-08-31). "Esper: The Collection coming to Oculus September 1st". KeenGamer. https://www.keengamer.com/articles/news/esper-the-collection-coming-to-oculus-september-1st/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  12. ↑ Sean Cleaver (2017-03-17). "Interview: The future of Coatsink". MCV. https://www.mcvuk.com/interview-the-future-of-coatsink/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Jamie Feltham (2017-06-30). "Oculus Studios' Augmented Empire Gets Release Date". UploadVR. https://uploadvr.com/oculus-studios-augmented-empire-gets-release-date. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Jamie Feltham (2017-04-04). "Oculus Studios' A Night Sky Is A Peaceful Showcase Of VR's Power". UploadVR. https://uploadvr.com/oculus-studios-night-sky-peaceful-showcase-vr/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  15. ↑ Jamie Feltham (2018-03-21). "GDC 2018: They Suspect Nothing Is Coatsink's First Game For Oculus Go". UploadVR. https://uploadvr.com/gdc-2018-suspect-nothing-coatsinks-first-game-oculus-go/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Scott Hayden (2018-07-30). "Coatsink's 'They Suspect Nothing' to Get First Big DLC Next Month, Including 8 New Mini-games". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/coatsinks-suspect-nothing-get-first-big-dlc-next-month-including-8-new-mini-games/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Scott Hayden (2019-03-21). "Hands-on: 'Shadow Point' is a Clever Room-scale Puzzler Narrated by Sir Patrick Stewart". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/?p=168702. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Jamie Feltham (2019-05-22). "Shadow Point Review: Patrick Stewart Underutilized In Engaging Puzzler". UploadVR. https://uploadvr.com/shadow-point-review/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  19. ↑ "Shadow Point shortlisted for VR Awards Game of the Year". Coatsink. 2019-07-01. https://coatsink.com/?p=10570. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Ben Lang (2021-10-05). "'Jurassic World Aftermath' Review (Part 1 & 2) - Cretaceous Cat & Mouse with Standout Style". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/jurassic-world-aftermath-review-quest/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 "Jurassic World Aftermath Collection". PlayStation. Sony Interactive Entertainment. https://www.playstation.com/en-sg/games/jurassic-world-aftermath/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Ryan Payton (2024-10-22). "Camouflaj - Meaningful Games". Camouflaj. https://camouflaj.com/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Henry Stockdale (2024-10-16). "Augmented Empire Quest Release Date". UploadVR. https://uploadvr.com/augmented-empire-quest-release-date. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Callum Self (2024-11-19). "Augmented Empire (2024) Review: Simple Cyberpunk With Great Vibes". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/augmented-empire-2024-quest-review/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 "Augmented Empire on Steam". Steam. Valve. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2856600/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  26. ↑ Alex Forbes-Calvin (2025-08-14). "Coatsink's founders are leaving the company". PCGamesInsider. https://www.pcgamesinsider.biz/news/75350/coatsinks-founders-are-leaving-the-company/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Mike Johnson (2025-12-05). "Men in Black: Most Wanted Review". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/men-in-black-most-wanted-review/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  28. ↑ James Tocchio (2025-11-13). "Men in Black: Most Wanted Release Date". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/men-in-black-vr-most-wanted-release-date/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  29. ↑ "Thunderful Group Initiates Restructuring in its Co-Development Segment". Thunderful Group. 2025-11-24. https://thunderfulgroup.com/news-room/press-releases/2025-11-24-thunderful-group-initiates-restructuring-in-its-co-development-segment/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Mike Johnson (2026-03-19). "Telekinetic VR Flying Adventure Game Skytail Soars Onto Quest Next Week". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/telekenetic-vr-flying-adventure-game-skytail-soars-onto-quest-next-week. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 "Skytail". Coatsink. https://www.coatsink.com/games/skytail. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
  32. ↑ "Become the Knight: 'Batman: Arkham Shadow' is Out Now on Meta Quest 3 and 3S". Meta Quest Blog. Meta Platforms. 2024-10-21. https://www.meta.com/blog/batman-arkham-shadow-launch-meta-quest-3-3s/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
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