Mediatonic Games, the company behind last summer’s hit Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, has been bought by Epic Games. Epic has purchased Mediatonic’s parent group, the Tonic Games Group, for an undisclosed amount and will soon own everything.
In a statement from Epic, Tonic Games Group CEO Dave Bailey said, “At Tonic Games Group we often say that ‘everyone deserves a game that feels like it was made for them.’ With Epic, we feel like we have found a home that was made for us.”
Mediatonic prepared their own statement, which read, “This is a huge win for Fall Guys. Since Fall Guys broke out in August, we’ve put everything we have into the game, and the Fall Guys team has already grown massively from 35 to 150+. Yet, there is so much more we want to build for our players…Joining forces with Epic will accelerate our plans to improve the game and bring Fall Guys to as many players as possible, while continuing to support the community.”
As part of the announcement, the team also prepared an FAQ. With a purchase this big, it’s safe to assume that things might change drastically, though Mediatonic assures that the gameplay experience of Fall Guys will remain unchanged and that their mission for the game hasn’t changed either. They’ve also said that the game will not be leaving the storefronts it is currently on, and will continue coming to systems it’s been announced for, including the Nintendo Switch and Xbox family.
The FAQ does note that Fall Guys isn’t going free-to-play, as many suspect, just yet, saying, “Nothing to announce right now!” Epic has enjoyed a great degree of success with the free-to-play model, which could make it an appealing option for Fall Guys down the line. Only time will tell.
On top of that, Mediatonic has made clear that Fall Guys will remain purchasable on Steam. When Epic Games bought Psyonix, the developers behind Rocket League, they said that the game would come to the Epic Games Store, but remain supported on Steam before it was delisted on there late last year and went free-to-play. This generated some controversy, as folks felt they’d still be able to purchase the popular car sports game on the familiar PC storefront. While they cannot, folks who purchased Rocket League on Steam still do get updates and can access it.
Fall Guys released in the dog days of pandemic summer last August to immediate acclaim and fervor. One of the first notable “pandemic games,” Fall Guys’ family-friendly aesthetic, not to mention releasing it for free on PlayStation with a PS Plus subscription, made the game an immediate hit.
Much like the game Epic is most famous for making now (remember when that was Gears of War?), Fall Guys has been pretty successful at not only appealing to children, but bringing in cross-media properties or celebrities for some promotion. This makes it pretty easy to see why Epic would rush in to buy the company wholesale and focus on expanding that as quickly and efficiently as possible.
For now, business seems to be continuing as usual at Mediatonic, ending their statement by saying that, “We’re proud of Mediatonic’s creative culture and this is something that Epic really values too. We’re focused on creating games that empower our players, create joy, and bring people together to have fun, and we couldn’t be more excited about the opportunities ahead.”