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Ready at Dawn & Downpour Interactive VR studios hit by layoffs in latest Meta job cuts

Meta acquired Onward developers Downpour Interactive and Lone Echo developers Ready at Dawn to bolster its gaming exclusives on Quest VR headsets.

TJ Denzer

April 20, 2023 11:20 AM

Image via Ready at Dawn

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As Meta continues to cut around 11,000 jobs in 2023, it looks like employees at Lone Echo developers Ready at Dawn and Onward developers Downpour Interactive are on the chopping block this week. Both studios have reported layoffs from Meta as the company cuts costs in 2023. It is unknown at this time how many employees at either studio were affected.

Word of layoffs at Ready at Dawn and Downpour Interactive were revealed via employees of both companies, as reported by Game Developer.

“My choice words are that I cannot disparage M*ta so let me just say that Ready at Dawn was a wonderful studio full of incredible people,” wrote now-former Ready at Dawn developer Colin McInernay.  “I genuinely learned a ton, including from one co-worker in particular, who I will be eternally grateful toward.”

“I just got laid off by Meta and no longer work on Onward,” wrote former Downpour Interactive senior game designer Michael Tsarouhas. “If anyone is hiring designers feel free to reach out, or just if you wanna play some DMZ or something. I definitely got time now.”

Ready at Dawn was acquired by Oculus Studios in 2020 and would go on to fall under Meta since. Under Meta, Ready at Dawn launched the exciting sci-fi puzzle thriller Lone Echo 2. Meanwhile, Downpour Interactive was grabbed by Facebook and Oculus Studios in 2021. Downpour has continued to maintain and develop content for tactical military shooter Onward under its time at Meta.

Meta reported it would be continuing layoffs in 2023 back in March, following the cut of 10,000 employees back in late 2022. Unfortunately, as good as Ready at Dawn and Downpour Interactive are, it looks like they are feeling the squeeze of these layoffs. Stay tuned as we continue to follow this story for further updates.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.