Epic Games has acquired Mediatonic, the indie studio behind last summer’s surprise hit Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. Epic says that the purchase won’t affect future plans to release the game on consoles this summer.
Epic confirmed that it acquired Tonic Games Group, the parent company that owns Mediatonic, in a blog post. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney cites the company’s shared commitment to building a “metaverse,” a concept Sweeney has long been vocal about, as a driving force behind the deal.
“It’s no secret that Epic is invested in building the metaverse and Tonic Games shares this goal,” says Sweeney. “As Epic works to build this virtual future, we need great creative talent who know how to build powerful games, content, and experiences.”
Gonna earn all the Crowns in @FallGuysGame now! Welcome to the Epic Family @Mediatonic and FallGuys 🎉 https://t.co/EjXDjPIMyB
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) March 2, 2021
On the Tonic Games side, the company echoes its shared mission with Epic and says that it’s looking to use the deal as a way to further empower its developers to build new ideas.
According to Epic’s blog post, the acquisition won’t affect the upcoming Nintendo Switch and Xbox version of Fall Guys. The game is currently scheduled to launch on those platforms sometime this summer. The company says it won’t be making changes to the gameplay or the current cross-platform support.
Most notably, the post doesn’t mention if the game will continue to live on Steam. Epic has a long history of making games PC exclusive to the Epic Games Store, taking them off of Steam. The practice has drawn the ire of gaming fans over the years and earned the storefront a negative reputation.
