Ready at Dawn, the studio best known for The Order 1886 and Kratos' various PSP adventures like God of War: Ghost of Sparta and God of War: Chains of Olympus, has reportedly lost as much as a third of its headcount in the latest round of Meta layoffs. The Facebook parent company acquired RAD back in 2020 to assist with the development of VR titles.
Senior engine and graphics programmer Thomas Griebel stated on Twitter that the studio head was also laid off. However, whether this refers to Andrea Pessino, Ru Weerasuriya, or both remains unclear (RAD was founded by the duo back in 2003).
The Order 1886 is a title PlayStation gamers are no doubt familiar with; the ambitious (and extremely short) third-person shooter felt like it was simultaneously ahead of its time and completely underbaked, kind of an achievement in its own right. Launching in 2015, the title was divisive, but staunch defenders argued in favour of the game, and we can't help but look back on it fondly as something of a time capsule ourselves. Fans have held out hope for a sequel for years now, but it might be time to lay that particular dream to rest.
What did you think of The Order 1886? A diamond in the rough, or a total non-starter? Wish all those affected the best in their future endeavours in the comments section below.
[source twitter.com, via twitter.com, playstationlifestyle.net]
Comments 57
Who ever decided to sell the company to Meta is an idiot that is all.
I do not and probably won't ever understand why a game dev would consider being owned by facebook and especially for Meta.
The Order: 1886 was a fun game that I enjoyed very much despite being short.
The world was amazing, the technology was amazing, the characters were very likeable and the story is very entertaining.
It's also one of the best games I've ever seen graphics wise, it blows most other games out of the water.
There was and IS incredible potential in this IP and for years I have been hoping Sony would do something with it.
I'm still holding out hope.
I actually replayed it last year to get the platinum and it genuinely didn't deserve the hate it got. Yes it wasn't perfect but there was so much potential for a sequel, like when the original Assassin's Creed launched. Assassin's Creed II absolutely nailed everything and the first one promised and that's what everyone remembers.
I think the main problem with The Order was someone got a copy over a week early and uploaded the entire game to YouTube meaning loads of cancelled pre-orders because people saw the entire story of a very heavily story based game.
Also only the first five minutes are first person so not sure why it was describes as an FPS in this article.
I am a defender of it although the price tag was definitely too high on release for content
The Order 1886 was far from a perfect game, but the universe they created had so much potential. Tis a shame.
The Order 1886 still holds up today. While short, it's still a fun story about the abuse of power, but with werewolves. I'm assuming the dev couldn't secure funding to continue with Playstation and went with Meta instead. Shame, I hope they continue making cool stuff.
I really enjoyed The Order. Sad to see so many lose their jobs but as they were owned by Facebook, there was ZERO percent chance I'd buy any of their projects.
Sounds like the quest might not being to good. Wonder if meta would ever get out of VR?
I was one of the few that loved every minute of the Order and their PSP God of War games were fantastic on PSP.
Oi! Gave up the ghost, they did, they did!!
Maybe Sony can scoop up some of those devs that got laid off and finally make The Order 1887
You described The Order a FPS shooter,? no it wasn't lolz..
I thought The Order: 1886 was a huge misfire, but I'll never deny that Ready at Dawn was a damn good studio when they began working with PlayStation. Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta are shockingly good for handheld God of War games. It's so sad to see how low they plummeted after Meta gobbled them up.
Sony shouldn't have let Ready at Dawn walk. Sad.
These guys could have been a PlayStation Studio, but they only have themselves to blame for the flop that was The Order 1886. Could have been anw amazing game, but truly had some questionable design choices.
I will never understand the hate for the Order. Yes it's a short game but not every game needs to be a 300 hour endurance test. Meanwhile Resident Evil 7 was also a full price game that was just as long as the Order was and yet that somehow got a free pass.
Sad but inevitable.
@Khayl As someone said above, The Order isn't an FPS.
@PegasusActual93 Yeah most older games were at least as short, like Sonic was about an hour long and would cost £100 or like $130 adjusting for inflation. The Order was twice the length of Super Mario World, Resident Evil 1 (more or less) and the vast majority of games SNES and prior that weren't RPGs. Yet people talk about those days as a golden age and how games should be more like they were then. Then a game that's both longer and cheaper than those games comes along and gets savaged.
@TheLotteryMan1 Mondays, amirite? I have the Platinum and everything, thanks for the catch Updated!
@Matroska The Order was really way to short for the price. It looked fantastic and it was fun to a degree the gameplay was somewhat dissapointing with a massive cliffhanger on the end. The Quicktime events where also really dissapointing. A 7/10 with a massive price and lacking in the gameplay. Heavenly Sword was short and expensive but atleast the game gun to play with awsome gameplay.
The game was good but has a lot of problems, I think the sequel can fix that, just bump up the playtime to 10-12 hours like re4 remake, make better ai, and no forced stealth section.
The order was very pretty and had a great premise but was mediocre as a video game. I'm not sure what these guys actually did under Meta but I can't say I'm surprised by the outcome
I am sure if Sony gave them more development time for The Order, they would have come up with a more complete game but it was rushed to have something near the release of the PS4.
A lot of crying for studio that made a mediocre game that was saved by it's visuals and worldbuilding that did not sell particularly well
The Order 1887 would be real nice right about now.
@czDante92 they were definetly on the path to being bought by Sony; as they were made up of ex-Naughty Dog members, and had a succussful and exclusive second party relationship with PlayStation from the jump, but...the flopping of Order basically threw a spanner into those works, and Sony severed there ties right afterwards. They got bought by Meta after making the fantastic Lone Echo for Rift in the aftermath.
The Order 1886 was one of the first games I had for PS4. Really enjoyed it despite some downsides. The world, setting and characters were fantastic and it was screaming out to be the start of a new franchise. I've played through it a couple of times over the years (an advantage of a short game).
Doesn't Sony own the IP? Perhaps sequel development could be shifted to another studio?
Hoping all the devs find new jobs quickly.
Meta, where talent goes to die.
Guessing with the amount money Meta has been losing on VR, and the lukewarm reception to alone Echo 2… This was bound to happen.
@carlos82 They created Lone Echo, Echo Combat, and Echo Arena. They was literally some of the best VR developers on the market right behind Insomniac Game… Lucky, Sony grab Insomniac right before Meta had the chance to. After Stormland, I’m sure meta was looking at acquiring them.
@Nepp67 They had an extremely good relationship with Oculus studios that lead to some of best VR games on market being created. Oculus Studios was basically like PlayStation studio quality for VR. It just recently that Zuckerberg decided to go down this path of destroying everything the teams at Oculus and their first party developers has created over his obsession of the metaverse.
Really loved the game and loved the setting even more. Would love to have a new game. Everything deserves another chance. If they aren't going to do anything with the IP for gaming, then they should make a TV series/movie out of it
I was really hoping Sony would pick up Ready At Dawn till FB grabbed them.
Just to remind all that Meta recently got fined a huge sum of money for the Cambridge Analytica scandal and people can claim from them. Think it’s America only but if you were a Facebook user during that time you can be compensated. Won’t be much but it could pay towards a download of TheOrder perhaps?
The Order was a cool piece of world building attached to a very pretty, but mediocre game.
A real shame here. I had a feeling something like this would happen when first I heard they got bought by Facebook. A game studio owned by a company whose only presence in the game industry is VR? That's just a recipe for failure. VR is cool but it's niche. Not a very stable ground for a studio to operate on exclusively.
Ready at Dawn always felt like the dev that got away from Sony to me. It's too bad they were a talented team. Say what you will but 1886 was a great first crack at a console game for them I would have loved to see a sequel to that game.
Zuck is just an absolute weirdo. I doubt very much there was any great strategy to which jobs needed to be gotten rid of. No doubt they'll want a new studio head on half the salary.
Hopefully this is a good thing and they'll start a new studio and make the order 1887!
@GreatAuk Agreed on The Order:1886. I enjoyed it's world, characters, graphics etc. The problems were
1) The gameplay was almost non-existent and not great when it was there. You could probably count the number of encounters on your hands and they bought nothing new to the table
2) It was really short. I personally didn't mind that, and frankly the uninspired gameplay didn't deserve longer, but it's a tough ask for a full AAA price.
The gaming industry is about to implode and have a big reset.
Greed has caused it to eat itself. Facebook, Xbox, Google…. All buying up and destroying good companies. Sleeping on IPs.
Its crazy the order 1886 havent been in ps plus essential all those years.word up son
tbh I really struggled following the story having not played the previous 1885 games, but it was still pretty decent.
That sucks. Their GoW games were quite alright and 1886 felt like it was a 1/3 slice of a really epic game.
Yeah this news came out very close to the Firewalk news. And it felt like a sliding doors moment because if The Order was successful then I'm certain they would be a Sony studio now.
Again it makes me grateful that Sony snapped up Insomniac because I've always been convinced that Meta were going to try to buy them.
The real crazy thing is the hate that it got for it's length could have been aimed at so many critically acclaimed games that came before and after it, there's quite a few that have the same run time as The Order 1886. I was engrossed in the world that the game created. The voice acting and story were on point and the graphics, simply outstanding even by today's standards it's a looker. Ready at Dawn may have moved on but Sony owns the IP so there's hope that one day we may see a sequel. But this is Sony and they don't always work that way.
I really don't know what Meta's VR strategy is. They just released the pro headset. They're just coming up on releasing their Quest 3, while at the same time shrinking their studios. After renaming the whole company around VR.
Imagine if Sony just started cutting studios right before releasing PS6. That's basically meta....
I enjoyed The Order, but the length was terribly short, especially with that ending. Beautiful game, but not at full price.
I was one of the minority that loved The Order. The fact it was short was a bonus for me having little time to spare for games and the graphics blew me away at the time.
Seems odd when staff get laid off so quickly after a buyout. Isn't the main purpose of buying a video games company to acquire the staff? I mean what's left without them? A few ips and nobody to do anything with them.
Order was like stiff as hell rail shooter but it was cool right? I played through it twice, not something I do but saw an easy platinum lost my save data from first playthrough and had to have it.
RIP any chance of a PS5 remaster or sequel for The Order: 1886...
I still haven't played it
@Happymoogle Money talks.
The Order has (for me) not problem with lenght, but with content. I enjoyed it but still waiting for something that didn't come. I expected more action like in Painkiller (still best shooter I've ever played).
That's what they get for not getting bought by Sony. Meta is not a videogame focus company so their fate was already sealed the moment Facebook got a hold of them.
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