Ready at Dawn

Ready at Dawn Studios is an American video game developer located in Irvine, California and is composed of former members of Naughty Dog[1] and Blizzard Entertainment.[2] Formed in 2003, the company has primarily worked on games for the PlayStation Portable (PSP), most notably the Sony Computer Entertainment intellectual property God of War and Daxter. Ready at Dawn also now has a satellite campus in Portland, Oregon to assist with future PC and console game development. The studio is now part of Oculus Studios as of June 2020.

Ready at Dawn Studios LLC
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo game industry
Founded2003
FounderRu Weerasuriya
Andrea Pessino
Didier Malenfant
HeadquartersIrvine, California, United States
Number of locations
2 studios (2018)
Key people

Ru Weerasuriya (CCO)
Andrea Pessino (CTO)
ProductsDaxter
God of War series
Lone Echo series
Number of employees
+100
ParentOculus Studios (2020–present)
Websitereadyatdawn.com

History

Ready at Dawn was founded in 2003 in Irvine, California, United States by Ru Weerasuriya, Andrea Pessino, Didier Malenfant, and former members of the Sony Computer Entertainment subsidiary Naughty Dog.[1] They released their first game, Daxter, in 2006. The company finished working on their second PSP game, God of War: Chains of Olympus[3] as well as a Wii port of Ōkami, with added motion controls.[4] In June 2008 it was confirmed that the company had ceased developing games for the PSP, and that they had returned the relevant development kits to Sony.[5] However, reports claim that the developer received new development kits after returning. Their next game was God of War: Ghost of Sparta, collaboratively developed with Santa Monica Studio for the PSP, with their new proprietary engine. Ready at Dawn released the God of War: Origins Collection for the PlayStation 3 on September 13, 2011. This collection is a port of their two God of War games for the PSP, Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta, to the PS3 with high-definition graphics, DualShock 3 support, Trophies, and Stereoscopic 3D, the first God of War release to support this feature.

In October 2009, Ready at Dawn began working on a new game engine. The Ready at Dawn Engine is said to be a wholly console-centric platform, integrated with a suite of third-party tools that require no additional license. These tools include 3D content editing, audio, user interface, and asset management systems.[6] In July 2010, it was announced that Ready at Dawn had made thirteen employees redundant, citing difficulties in finding funding between projects behind the redundancies.[7] In early 2012, the company began hiring for the development of a third-person action-adventure game for a "next generation home console game system."[8] Ready at Dawn and Sony later revealed the game at E3 2013 as The Order: 1886. In June 2015, Ru Weerasuriya, the founder of the company, announced that his position as CEO will be replaced by Paul Sams and will step down to become the company's president and chief creative officer.[9] Ready at Dawn was in attendance at the large Chinese game publisher, Tencent’s UP Conference in April 2017, this was to announce a partnership to bring Ready at Dawn games into China. This partnership was headlined by bringing the game Deformers to China, although it was short lived due to the Deformers servers being shut down August 2018.

In July 2017, Ready at Dawn released Lone Echo and Echo Arena[10] exclusively for the Oculus Rift. Echo Arena has since been included in the VR League,[11] a VR esports segment of ESL, since Season 1. In November 2018, Ready at Dawn released Echo Combat,[12] a first-person shooter DLC using the same zero-g movement found in Echo Arena, and announced that the company had opened a satellite studio in Portland, Oregon.[13] It is to be believed that this new satellite studio is a part of the development of Ready at Dawn’s new project that was teased back in February 2018.

In July 2018, it was announced by CTO Andrea Pessino that all future development at the company would be done using the Rust programming language. This made Ready at Dawn one of the first game studios to adopt the language, as game development is primarily done using C or C++.

Oculus Studios, under Facebook, acquired Ready at Dawn in June 2020 to develop VR titles for the platform.[14]

Games developed
Game titleNorth American release datePlatformMetacritic score
DaxterMarch 14, 2006PlayStation Portable85/100[15]
God of War: Chains of OlympusMarch 4, 200891/100[16]
ŌkamiApril 15, 2008Wii90/100[17]
God of War: Ghost of SpartaNovember 2, 2010PlayStation Portable86/100[18]
God of War: Origins CollectionSeptember 13, 2011PlayStation 384/100[19]
The Order: 1886February 20, 2015PlayStation 463/100[20]
Deformers[21]April 21, 2017PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Xbox One60/100[22]
Lone EchoJuly 20, 2017Oculus Rift89/100[23]
Echo ArenaJuly 20, 2017Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest87/100[24]
Echo CombatNovember 15, 2018Oculus Rift80/100[25]
Lone Echo II[26]TBAOculus Rift

References
  1. "Naughty Dog director lured to Ready at Dawn by new IP". joystiq.com. 2007-08-03. Retrieved 2014-06-10.
  2. "E3 2014: Game developer Ready at Dawn rolls the dice with 'The Order: 1886′". LATimes.com. 2014-06-10. Retrieved 2014-06-10.
  3. Roper, Chris (March 13, 2007). "God of War for PSP Confirmed". IGN. Retrieved February 28, 2012.
  4. Bramwell, Tom (October 18, 2007). "Okami confirmed for Wii". Eurogamer. Retrieved February 28, 2012.
  5. Martin, Matt (June 10, 2008). "Ready at Dawn officially finished with PSP development". gamesindustry.biz. Eurogamer. Retrieved February 28, 2012.
  6. Crossley, Rob (October 12, 2008). "Ready at Dawn declares war with new engine". Develop. Intent Media. Retrieved February 28, 2012.
  7. Thorsen, Tor (July 14, 2010). "God of War PSP studio axes 13". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
  8. Spencer (February 28, 2012). "Ready at Dawn Ramping Up For New Third Person Action/Adventure Game". Siliconera. Retrieved February 28, 2012.
  9. Kato, Matthew (June 8, 2015). "The Order: 1886 Developer Ready at Dawn Expanding In New Directions". Game Informer. Retrieved June 8, 2015.
  10. "Lone Echo multiplayer is Ender's Game meets ultimate frisbee in VR (update)". Polygon. June 12, 2017. Retrieved January 21, 2019.
  11. "Compete in the World's First VR Esports League: VR Challenger Brackets Now Open!". Oculus Blog. July 12, 2017. Retrieved January 21, 2019.
  12. "VR shooter Echo Combat has the best movement of any FPS I've played". PC Gamer. December 17, 2018. Retrieved January 21, 2019.
  13. http://www.readyatdawn.com/ready-at-dawn-expands-operations-into-the-pacific-northwest/
  14. Gach, Ethan (June 22, 2020). "Facebook Buys Creators Of The Order: 1886". Kotaku. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
  15. "Daxter for PSP". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved February 28, 2012.
  16. "God of War: Chains of Olympus for PSP". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved February 28, 2012.
  17. "Okami for Wii". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved February 28, 2012.
  18. "God of War: Ghost of Sparta for PSP". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved February 28, 2012.
  19. God of War Origins Collection for PlayStation 3 Reviews - Metacritic
  20. The Order: 1886 for PlayStation 4 Reviews - Metacritic
  21. "Prepare for an Epic Battle!". Ready at Dawn. June 2, 2016. Retrieved 2016-06-17.
  22. De-Formers for PlayStation 4 Reviews - Metacritic
  23. Lone Echo for PC Reviews - Metacritic
  24. Echo Arena for PC Reviews - Metacritic
  26. "Lone Echo II Trailer". Oculus VR. Retrieved December 15, 2018.

Wawro, A. (n.d.). Ready at Dawn joins list of devs working with Tencent to launch games into China. Retrieved from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/296511/Ready_At_Dawn_joins_list_of_devs_working_with_Tencent_to_launch_games_into_China.php

Kidwell, E. (n.d.). Ready at Dawn shuts down Deformers servers. Retrieved from https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/324451/Ready_at_Dawn_shuts_down_Deformers_servers.php

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