In a surprise move, Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, has acquired Mediatonic, the company behind 2020’s breakout hit Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. Epic broke the news of the acquisition with an official announcement this morning.
Mediatonic’s multiplayer party game Fall Guys has been a runaway success since launching in August 2020. Inspired by shows like Wipeout and Takeshi’s Castle, the battle royale-style title features costumed bean-like creatures that compete in a series of mini-games in an effort to win a crown. Currently late in its third season, Fall Guys Season 4 will have a futuristic theme, aptly titled “Fall Guys 4041.”
The official Fall Guys Twitter account shared the news with an official announcement of joining the Epic Games umbrella. Along with the tweet is a truly disturbing mashup featuring a Fall Guys bean stretched to Fortnite proportions in order to do the latter’s “dance moves” emote. In addition to revealing the Fall Guys team over quadrupling in size – 35 to 150 – Mediatonic promised that the gameplay players know and love “isn’t changing.” The post goes on to discuss how the acquisition will help the team bring many of the features already seen in Fortnite and Rocket League, which also fell under the Epic umbrella when the company acquired developer Psyonix back in 2019.
Some of the features listed include account systems, cross-play, squad modes, and more. Mediatonic does mention that the game will remain on Steam and PlayStation, although it had a curiosity-piquing nothing to announce “right now.” In regards to why Mediatonic chose Epic, the statement says the two companies have been “mutual fans” for a while, and share a lot of the same goals. In what could be seen as intelligent foresight as to avoid the review bombing Rocket League took when it was acquired by Epic, the Mediatonic team assures players that it’ll continue as the same team, “working on the same game” except now with the capacity gained through Epic to elevate the game higher than ever.
Epic did make Rocket League free to play after acquiring the title, so there’s reason to believe Fall Guys will follow suit. However, doing so will likely cause an issue with those who previously shelled out money for the game. Fall Guys was also recently confirmed for Xbox along with the Nintendo Switch, so gaining a developer giant’s infrastructure plays to its’ advantage.
Epic Games’ acquisition of Fall Guys is a massive development, making Epic Games even more dominant a force in the gaming sphere. It’ll be interesting to see what it does with the IP in the months ahead.
Fall Guys is out now on PC and PlayStation 4, with Switch and Xbox versions slated to launch this summer.
Source: Mediatonic Games
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