Facebook acquires the developers of VR military simulator Onward

Facebook’s Oculus division has snatched up yet another popular virtual reality game developer. On Friday, the company announced it has acquired Downpour Interactive, the studio behind the hit multiplayer military simulator Onward.
 
“We’ve seen great success with Onward on the Oculus platform for several years — first on Rift and more recently on Quest,” Mike Verdu, Facebook’s VP of AR / VR content, said in a blog post. “Becoming part of the Oculus Studios family will give Downpour Interactive the opportunity to cultivate both the Onward community with the full support of Oculus Studios resources, and, in the future, pursue other projects.”
 
Everyone from Downpour Interactive will move over to the Oculus Studios team “in some capacity,” Verdu said. He also confirmed that Onward will still be supported on all of the platforms where it’s currently available: the Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest, and Steam.
 
Dante Buckley, founder and CEO of Downpour Interactive, said in an FAQ on the studio’s website that Onward’s feature roadmap “remains unchanged” and that the studio plans to “accelerate the speed of our development” because of the acquisition. Downpour Interactive will also continue to retain “full control of all development,” he said.
 
The acquisition is Facebook’s latest to beef up Oculus Studios. The company bought Beat Saber developer Beat Games in November 2019, Asgard’s Wrath maker Sanzaru Games in February 2020, and Lone Echo creator Ready at Dawn in June 2020.

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