Meta VR Studio Behind ‘Lone Echo’ Shuts Down After No New Game Release in Nearly Three Years

Meta’s own VR studio Ready at sunrise –the developers of Lonely Echo and more—is reportedly shutting down. This comes after the studio was acquired in 2020 and has released just one game since then.

Ready at Dawn is the studio behind one of the most immersive PC VR games: Lonely Echo (2017)and the popular multiplayer spin-off, Echo VRAfter the release of those two titles, the studio was eventually acquired by Meta in 2020 and eventually launched Lonely Echo II on PC in late 2021.

Ready at Dawn had been developing for some time Lonely Echo II when the studio was acquired by Meta. The reason for the acquisition remains unclear to this day, but there are two main possibilities: Ready at Dawn struggled to find enough money to finish on Lonely Echo II and Meta stepped in to make sure this would happen, otherwise things would only get better for the studio, but Meta made a very attractive offer that the studio couldn’t refuse.

Whatever the case, Lonely Echo II was the only major title released by Ready at Dawn after the Meta acquisition. Nearly three years after its release in late 2021, the studio has yet to release, let alone announce, a new game.

The only major thing that actually happened to the studio is that it closed. Echo VRa beloved multiplayer spin-off from the Lonely Echo Games, in 2022.

With little to see, many wondered what the studio was doing.

A port of Lonely Echo And Lonely Echo II for Quest was considered a possibility, but Meta dismissed that hope in 2022 when it said there were no plans for Lonely Echo on Quest, saying instead that the studio was “in the early stages of working on new, exciting projects and can’t wait to share more information about them in the future.” Perhaps a brand new Quest game was in the works?

Whatever the studio worked on, it was all for naught, unfortunately. Android Central announced today that Ready at Dawn is closing effective immediately.

This is not only an unexpected shock to those outside the studio, but apparently to those inside the studio as well; Android Central says that Meta employees were “encouraged to apply elsewhere within Oculus Studios and that the company wants to retain as many talented developers as possible” – suggesting that little effort was made to absorb the studio’s talent into the company as a whole upfront.

The studio’s closure comes amid Meta’s efforts to curb spending at Reality Labs, its metaverse and XR division. The division has spent an average of $15.5 billion per year since its inception, with an average annual revenue of just $2.1 billion.

The closure of Ready at Dawn closes a nearly 21-year chapter for the studio that began building titles for PSP, PS3, and PS4. Before its acquisition by Meta, the studio had transitioned into VR development, creating Lonely Echowhich became an iconic PC VR title thanks to its production quality, innovative zero-G locomotion, and the Echo VR multiplayer spin-off that took on a life of its own.