Sanzaru Games became part of Oculus Studios. The developer was acquired by Facebook.
Asgard’s Wrath
About the purchase of the studio informs Gamesindustry.biz .
The social network confirmed the deal, but skimped on details. It is also unknown how much Facebook paid for Sanzaru Games. The situation is completely similar to the purchase of Beat Games by the social network in November.
As Facebook Content Director Mike Verdu noted, “the vast majority of employees” of Sanzaru Games will join Oculus Studios. Their exact number is not called. “They will continue to work on an amazing VR experience as an independent studio with the full support of Facebook and the enthusiastic Oculus Studios team,” the top manager said. But it is unclear what projects Sanzaru has in the works.
Sanzaru Games is called a “virtual reality pioneer” on Facebook. The studio received this title due to the fact that in 2016 it became the first of the Oculus Studios development partners. Since then, the Sanzaru team has created four titles for Oculus VR helmets: Ripcoil, VR Sports Challenge, MARVEL Powers United VR and Asgard’s Wrath.
The developer himself was founded in 2007. He now has three offices in California and Ontario. In addition to the VR line, his portfolio includes the games Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal and Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice.
Note that Facebook has been buying assets a lot lately. Beat Games, acquired by her, is the author of one of the most commercially successful VR games. Also recently, a developer of cloud solutions PlayGiga joined Facebook. And, according to Verdu’s statement, this year the social network is announcing several more acquisitions, including for its VR direction.