Gameplay from Mediatonic’s Battle Royale game, Fall Guys.
Mediatonic
LONDON – Fortnite developer Epic Games has agreed to acquire Tonic Games Group, the British company behind the video game Fall Guys.
Fall Guys became an instant hit when it launched last summer, attracting millions of players a month after its release. The game sees up to 60 people playing as jelly beans competing to pass through a series of colorful obstacle courses to earn crowns, the in-game currency that players use to buy cosmetic items.
It was helped in large part by a wave of demand for video games during the coronavirus pandemic. The Epic deal comes amid a series of acquisitions in the gaming industry. Last year, Microsoft agreed to buy the iconic Bethesda gaming group for $ 7.5 billion, while EA recently closed the acquisition of British racing game maker Codemasters for $ 1.2 billion.
“It is no secret that Epic is investing in the construction of the metaverse and Tonic Games shares that goal,” he said. Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic in a statement. “While Epic works to build that virtual future, we need great creative talents who know how to build powerful games, content and experiences.”
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Fortnite and Fall Guys are similar in that they both fall into the popular Battle Royale genre, which became popular from the start due to the huge success of Fortnite. Since its launch in 2017, Fortnite has amassed more than 350 million players. This attracted the attention of notable investors like Sony, which invested $ 250 million in Epic last year. The latter company was valued at $ 17.3 billion.
At the same time, Epic is waging a tense legal dispute with Apple over the policies of the iPhone maker’s app store. Epic last year published a version of Fortnite on the Apple App Store that included a method for users to make in-app purchases without giving Apple its usual 30% cut. Subsequently, Apple removed the Fortnite app and Epic sued Apple later in the day.