Ever since its launch back in August of last year, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout has enjoyed enormous success. The game, which was developed by British studio Mediatonic, gained an active player base in excess of 1.5 million players within its first day! Now, Epic Games has announced its acquisition of Tonic Games Group, the parent company of Mediatonic.
Epic’s Latest Acquisition: Tonic & Fall Guys
Tonic Games Group is a parent company which owns several different studios and other subsidiaries. Alongside Mediatonic, these include Fortitude Games and The Irregulator Corporation, a publishing label. Fall Guys is far and away, however, the Group’s most successful product. Given that context, it should be fairly clear why Epic would want to acquire the company.
“It’s no secret that Epic is invested in building the metaverse,” said Tim Sweeney, Epic Games founder and CEO; “and Tonic Games shares this goal. As Epic works to build this virtual future, we need great creative talent who know how to build powerful games, content and experiences.”
Sweeney went on to address Fall Guys directly, reassuring players that the game will not be pulled from any storefronts. Understandably, when the news first broke, there was some concern that Epic might make Fall Guys exclusive to the Epic Games Store, for example. This will not be the case, and Sweeney states that Epic; “will continue to invest in making the game a great experience for players across platforms.”
Fall Guys does seem a natural fit for Epic, given their experience with Fortnite, and this sentiment appears to be shared by Tonic co-founder and CEO Dave Bailey. “With Epic, we feel like we have found a home that was made for us,” he said; “They share our mission to build and support games that have a positive impact, empower others and stand the test of time, and we couldn’t be more excited to be joining forces with their team.”