Onward (2020), the tactical mil-sim shooter from Meta-owned Downpour Interactive, bought its large 2.0 replace in March, bringing improved visuals and a bunch of recent content material to the sport. Now, Downpour Interactive introduced that Meta is shutting down the studio, successfully halting growth and transferring workers to sister studio Camouflaj.
Downpour Interactive introduced the information in a blogpost, detailing what’s taking place subsequent.
“Replace 2.0 would be the final content material for Onward,” the studio says, additional noting that whereas the sport will not be shut down, it’s going to now not obtain dev help for brand spanking new content material or non-critical bug fixes.
This additionally means Onward now not has a devoted help workforce; the studio suggests contacting platform holders, comparable to Meta and Valve, for technical help in launching the sport. Bug-related or troubleshooting points needs to be directed on the Onward Discord or Onward subreddit, the studio says.
Moreover, Downpour Interactive introduced its builders have been moved to Meta sister studio Camouflaj, identified for Iron Man VR (2020) and Batman: Arkham Shadow (2024).
In 2016, Onward made a splash with its early entry launch on PC VR headsets, turning into a mainstay for hardcore VR mil-sim gamers. Then, in 2020, the studio ported Onward to the unique Oculus Quest with the assistance of writer Coatsink, which notably got here with a critically-received graphical downgrade affecting all platforms—one thing initially finished to insure higher PC VR-Quest cross-play.
With the acquisition of Downpour Interactive in 2021, Meta noticed it as a chance to make Onward “one of many foremost multiplayer VR video games” although, spurring the studio to tighten up the sport to incorporate higher visuals, lighting, and smarter AI habits.
Meta acquired a rash of VR studios between 2019 and 2022, together with Beat Video games (Beat Saber), Sanzaru Video games (Asgard’s Wrath I & II), Prepared at Daybreak (Lone Echo, Echo VR), BigBox VR (Inhabitants: One), Inside (Supernatural), Twisted Pixel (Wilson’s Coronary heart, Marvel’s Deadpool VR), and Camouflaj.
Amid turmoil within the wider gaming business in recent times, Meta nonetheless performed wide-ranging layoffs in 2023, which affected over 10,000 workers throughout the corporate.
Amongst them was a 3rd of employees at Prepared at Daybreak, and an unverified quantity at Downpour Interactive. Studio founder and former CEO Dante Buckley, who began the studio in 2015, departed the corporate a month previous to layoffs.
