Toggle search
Toggle menu
4.9K
5.5K
229
46.8K
VR & AR Wiki
Toggle preferences menu
Toggle personal menu
Not logged in
Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits.

Ready at Dawn

From VR & AR Wiki
More actions
Ready at Dawn
Information
Industry Video games, virtual reality
Founded 2003
Founder Ru Weerasuriya, Andrea Pessino, Didier Malenfant
Headquarters Irvine, California, United States
Notable Personnel Ru Weerasuriya (co-founder, chief executive), Andrea Pessino (co-founder, chief technical officer), Didier Malenfant (co-founder; president in 2007), Paul Sams (chief executive from 2015)
Products Lone Echo, Echo VR, Lone Echo II
Parent Oculus Studios (Meta Platforms), 2020-2024
Website https://www.readyatdawn.com


Ready at Dawn (styled Ready At Dawn Studios by the company) was an American video game developer based in Irvine, California. It was founded in 2003 by former senior staff of Naughty Dog and Blizzard Entertainment and first made games for Sony's PlayStation platforms, including two God of War titles for the PSP and The Order: 1886 for the PlayStation 4.[1][2][3]

In virtual reality the studio is known for Lone Echo, Echo VR (first released as Echo Arena) and Lone Echo II, all made for the Oculus Rift and published by Oculus Studios. Their zero-gravity movement, in which the player grabs surfaces and pushes off them with tracked hands, became the studio's signature system.[4][5] Facebook bought Ready at Dawn in June 2020, and Meta closed the studio on 7 August 2024.[6][7]

Reviewed 4 October 2026. Founding, founders, PSP/PS4 history, VR game release dates, prices and awards, the 2020 Facebook acquisition, Echo VR shutdown, 2023 layoffs, 2024 closure and co-founders' later statements checked against the cited studio, Meta, Road to VR, UploadVR, Android Central and other sources. About review dates.

History

Founding and console games

The studio's own history page says it was founded in 2003 "by senior members of Naughty Dog and Blizzard Entertainment" and located in Irvine, California.[1] Its three co-founders were Didier Malenfant, Andrea Pessino and Ru Weerasuriya.[8] Malenfant had been a senior programmer at Interplay, Shiny Entertainment and Naughty Dog, where he wrote most of the tools for Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy; in 2007 the studio listed him as president, overseeing business development and engine licensing.[9] Pessino, the chief technical officer, had been a senior software engineer at Blizzard Entertainment from 1998 to 2003, and Weerasuriya had led cinematic art direction at Blizzard for Warcraft III and World of Warcraft.[10]

Ready at Dawn's first game was Daxter for the PlayStation Portable in 2006, followed on the same handheld by God of War: Chains of Olympus in 2008 and God of War: Ghost of Sparta in 2010.[1] It also made the Wii version of Okami.[10] In 2015 it released The Order: 1886, a PlayStation 4 exclusive.[3][2]

In June 2015 former Blizzard chief operating officer Paul Sams became chief executive and opened an Austin, Texas office for business development and publishing. Weerasuriya moved from chief executive to president and chief creative officer, and the Irvine studio was to concentrate on game development.[11][2] By 2018 Road to VR again identified Weerasuriya as the studio's chief executive.[12] The multiplayer arena game Deformers, published by GameTrust, was scheduled for release on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on 21 April 2017, after a delay from February.[13]

Move into virtual reality

Lone Echo was revealed at Oculus Connect 3 in October 2016 as the studio's first VR title, a narrative game for the Oculus Rift and Oculus Touch controllers.[3][5] Road to VR's hands-on described the movement system: the player can grab any object or surface, including railings and other characters, and push off to travel, with velocity changes designed to reduce motion sickness and no artificial rotation.[5] Mike Verdu, Facebook's vice president of AR/VR content, later described the studio's "signature zero-g continuous locomotion system and full-body IK (inverse kinematics)" as common to all four of its Oculus games.[4]

Lone Echo and its multiplayer companion Echo Arena launched together on the Oculus Rift on 20 July 2017. Lone Echo sold for US$40, and an Intel sponsorship made Echo Arena free to anyone who added it to their library in the first three months.[14] Lone Echo won Best VR Game at the 2017 Game Critics Awards, and Lone Echo/Echo Arena won both Immersive Reality Game of the Year and Immersive Reality Technical Achievement at the 21st D.I.C.E. Awards in 2018.[15][16]

In June 2018 the Echo Arena client was renamed Echo VR, a shared lobby for the free sport mode and the paid shooter Echo Combat. Weerasuriya said the studio wanted "to kind of view this more as a single world that is going to keep on giving back to the players as the years go on".[12] Echo Combat launched on the Rift on 15 November 2018 as a US$10 add-on.[17] Echo VR reached the standalone Oculus Quest as a free download on 1 September 2020, with cross-play against the Rift version.[18]

Lone Echo II was announced at Oculus Connect 5 in September 2018 as a Rift exclusive.[19] First planned for 2019, it slipped to the first quarter of 2020, then to later in 2020 and finally to 2021; the studio said development had been "greatly impacted" by the move to working from home in March 2020.[20] It was released for the Rift platform on 12 October 2021 at US$40, and could also be played on Quest 2 through Oculus Link.[21] The sequel won Immersive Reality Game of the Year and Immersive Reality Technical Achievement at the 25th D.I.C.E. Awards.[22]

Acquisition by Facebook

On 22 June 2020 Facebook announced that it had acquired Ready at Dawn. The entire team joined Oculus Studios, and the studio was to keep operating independently from its offices in Irvine and Portland, Oregon.[4][8] Terms were not disclosed. It was Facebook's third VR studio purchase, and all of Ready at Dawn's VR games had already been published by Oculus Studios.[6] In a July 2025 interview with The Game Business, reported by UploadVR, Weerasuriya said the studio had been "quite happy being independent" and had wanted to make both VR and PlayStation 5 games, but was convinced by Meta's "strong vision" for VR; he said that as priorities changed in later years the studio "wasn't quite aligned" with Meta's direction.[23]

Echo VR shutdown, layoffs and closure

In July 2022 Ready at Dawn said that Echo Combat would not be brought to Quest because it was "built specifically for the Rift using PC spec", that it had no plans for further patches or updates to Lone Echo II, and that it was "in the early stages of working on new, exciting projects".[24] On 31 January 2023 the studio announced that Echo VR would shut down on 1 August 2023. The studio said it was coming together to focus on its next project: "We can't say anything about it yet, but we are all excited and need all hands on deck."[25] Meta chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth said at the time that the game's player count was "in the low 10 thousands".[26]

In April 2023, during a wider round of Meta layoffs, about a third of Ready at Dawn's staff were laid off, including the studio head. One programmer said attrition had already reduced the studio by "almost half" since he joined the previous August.[27][28]

Meta closed Ready at Dawn, effective immediately, on 7 August 2024. Road to VR noted that the studio had not released a new game in nearly three years.[7][29] Android Central reported that an internal memo from Gio Hunt, vice president of Oculus Studios, tied the decision to budget limits on Meta's Reality Labs division. Meta told the outlet that employees were encouraged to apply for other roles within Oculus Studios, and that the closure was not a signal of wider cuts to the number of first-party Quest games.[26]

In a two-hour interview with MinnMax, reported by UploadVR in February 2025, Pessino said the studio had been working on an unannounced VR game that "was supposed to be one of the biggest and most revolutionary VR games ever", and that with the team "down to like under 70" there was no way it could be finished.[30] By July 2025 Weerasuriya was a co-founder of Atlantis Studio, a new games company based in the south of France; he first joined it as an investor and adviser, and said he did not want it to grow beyond 25 or 30 people.[31][23]

Products

Title Year Platform Notes
Daxter 2006 PlayStation Portable First game[1]
God of War: Chains of Olympus 2008 PlayStation Portable [1]
God of War: Ghost of Sparta 2010 PlayStation Portable [1]
Okami Wii Port of the game to the Wii[10]
The Order: 1886 2015 PlayStation 4 PS4 exclusive[2]
Deformers 2017 PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One Multiplayer arena game published by GameTrust[13]
Lone Echo 2017 Oculus Rift First VR title; released 20 July 2017; Oculus Studios[14]
Echo VR (Echo Arena) 2017 Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest Free multiplayer zero-g sport; renamed Echo VR in 2018; Quest version 2020; shut down 1 August 2023[12][18][25]
Echo Combat 2018 Oculus Rift US$10 shooter add-on within Echo VR[17]
Lone Echo II 2021 Oculus Rift Released 12 October 2021[21]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "Company History". Ready At Dawn Studios (archived). 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20101025035234/http://www.readyatdawn.com/company_history.html. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Eric David (2015-06-08). "Former Blizzard exec joins The Order: 1886 studio Ready At Dawn as CEO". SiliconANGLE. https://siliconangle.com/2015/06/08/former-blizzard-exec-joins-the-order-1886-studio-ready-at-dawn-as-ceo/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Scott Hayden (2016-10-06). "Video: 'Lone Echo' is a Sci-Fi Adventure from the Makers of 'The Order: 1886'". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/video-lone-echo-sci-fi-adventure-makers-god-war-series-okami/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Mike Verdu (2020-06-22). "Welcoming Ready At Dawn to Facebook". Meta Quest Blog. Meta Platforms. https://www.meta.com/blog/welcoming-ready-at-dawn-to-facebook/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Frank He (2016-10-07). "Hands On: 'Lone Echo' Nails Zero-G Movement in VR With Oculus Touch". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/hands-on-lone-echo-nails-zero-gravity-in-vr-with-oculus-touch/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Ben Lang (2020-06-22). "Facebook Buys Its Third VR Studio, 'Lone Echo' Developer Ready at Dawn". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/facebook-acquires-ready-at-dawn-lone-echo-developer/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Ben Lang (2024-08-07). "Meta VR Studio Behind 'Lone Echo' Shuttered After No New Game Release in Nearly Three Years". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/meta-ready-at-dawn-lone-echo-vr-shut-down/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Kevin Costelloe (2020-07-05). "Ready at Dawn Studios Bought by Facebook". Orange County Business Journal. https://www.ocbj.com/finance/ready-dawn-studios-bought-facebook/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  9. ↑ "Didier Malenfant". Ready At Dawn Studios (archived). 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070222204207/http://www.readyatdawn.com/didier.html. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 "Studio - Ready At Dawn". Ready At Dawn Studios. https://www.readyatdawn.com/studio.html. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  11. ↑ MCV Staff (2015-06-08). "Blizzard exec Paul Sams joins Ready at Dawn as CEO". MCV/DEVELOP. https://mcvuk.com/business-news/blizzard-exec-paul-sams-joins-ready-at-dawn-as-ceo/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Ben Lang (2018-06-21). "'Echo Arena' Becomes 'Echo VR' to Make Way for 'Echo Combat', and Maybe More One Day". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/echo-arena-becomes-echo-vr-to-make-way-for-echo-combat-and-maybe-more-one-day/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 David Kers (2017-04-12). "Ready at Dawn's Deformers will launch next week". Gamereactor. https://www.gamereactor.eu/ready-at-dawns-deformers-will-launch-next-week/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Scott Hayden (2017-07-20). "'Echo Arena' Launches Today, Free for a Limited Time". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/echo-arena-will-free-anyone-downloads-first-3-months/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  15. ↑ "2017 Winners". Game Critics Awards. https://www.gamecriticsawards.com/2017winners.html. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  16. ↑ "21st Annual D.I.C.E. Awards". Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. https://www.interactive.org/awards/2018_21st_annual_dice_awards.asp. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Scott Hayden (2018-11-16). "'Echo Combat' Review - Going Out Guns Ablazing in Zero-G". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/echo-combat-review/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 "Suit Up for Zero Gravity Battles in 'Echo VR,' Now Available on Oculus Quest". Meta Quest Blog. Meta Platforms. 2020-09-01. https://www.meta.com/blog/suit-up-for-zero-gravity-battles-in-echo-vr-now-available-on-oculus-quest/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  19. ↑ Ben Lang (2018-09-26). "'Lone Echo 2' Announced, Immersive Trailer Available on Rift, Go, & Gear VR". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/lone-echo-2-announcement-immersive-trailer-oculus-connect-5/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  20. ↑ Ben Lang (2020-12-08). "Once Slated for 2019, 'Lone Echo II' Release Date Slips into 2021". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/lone-echo-2-release-date-further-delayed/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Ben Lang (2021-10-12). "Lone Echo II Review - A Long Wait for a Safe Sequel". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/lone-echo-2-review-oculus-rift-quest/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  22. ↑ "Lone Echo II Wins Immersive Reality Game of the Year at the 25th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards". Meta Quest Blog. Meta Platforms. 2022-02-28. https://www.meta.com/blog/lone-echo-ii-wins-immersive-reality-game-of-the-year-at-the-25th-annual-dice-awards/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Henry Stockdale (2025-07-22). "Ready At Dawn Co-Founder: VR Needs More Competition & Innovation". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/ready-at-dawn-co-founder-vr-needs-more-competition-innovation/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  24. ↑ Ben Lang (2022-07-15). "Meta Studio Ready at Dawn Working on "new, exciting projects," No Plans for 'Lone Echo' or 'Echo Combat' on Quest". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/ready-at-dawn-working-new-project-vr-no-plans-lone-echo-combat-quest/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Henry Stockdale (2023-01-31). "Echo VR Shuts Down In August As Ready At Dawn Focuses On 'Next Project'". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/echo-vr-shut-down-ready-at-dawn/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Nicholas Sutrich (2024-08-07). "Exclusive: Meta is closing a beloved first-party Quest studio". Android Central. https://www.androidcentral.com/gaming/virtual-reality/ready-at-dawn-studios-closing. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  27. ↑ Mike Straw (2023-04-20). "A Third Of Ready At Dawn Studios Hit With Layoffs". Insider Gaming. https://insider-gaming.com/a-third-of-ready-at-dawn-studios-hit-with-layoffs/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  28. ↑ Zarmena Khan (2023-04-21). "The Order 1886 Studio Ready at Dawn Gutted by Meta". PlayStation LifeStyle. https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2023/04/21/ready-at-dawn-layoffs-meta/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  29. ↑ Ian Hamilton (2024-08-07). "Meta Shutters Echo Arena & Lone Echo Creator Ready At Dawn". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/ready-at-dawn-horizon-sunset/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  30. ↑ David Heaney (2025-02-11). "Ready At Dawn Was Working On A "Revolutionary" VR Game When Meta Shut It Down". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/ready-at-dawn-post-shutdown-cofounder-interview/. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  31. ↑ Christopher Dring (2025-07-22). "Ready at Dawn co-founder says VR developers need to take more risks". The Game Business. https://www.thegamebusiness.com/p/ready-at-dawn-co-founder-says-vr. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
Retrieved from "https://vrarwiki.com/index.php?title=Ready_at_Dawn&oldid=46326"