Well, there you go. Mediatonic has announced that the studio has been acquired by Epic Games. Of course, this is good news for Mediatonic, who has crafted an immensely enjoyable game and one that has met with tons of positive reception. The amount of the acquisition has not disclosed as this time.
Here’s what Mediatonic had to say about the recent development.
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. With our publisher Devolver Digital supporting and championing us along the way with Fall Guys, Foul Play and Hatoful Boyfriend, we’ve been able to bring some truly unique experiences to players as an independent studio.
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.
Your gameplay isn’t changing and neither is our mission to bring Fall Guys to as many players as possible. Each season, we’ll continue to expand the game with new content, features, rounds, and costumes.
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout will remain purchasable on Steam and PlayStation. If you own the game on these platforms, you’ll still be able to play it from there and will receive future updates. We are also still planning to bring Fall Guys to Nintendo Switch and Xbox.
I’m happy for the team, this is the cherry on the top for their hard work. However, I am concerned about the status of the game going forward. While MediaTonic has stated that nothing will change going forward and that Fall Guys will remain purchasable on Steam, that could be questionable for the future.
We’ve seen games that were once on Steam and then pulled (eventually). This is the very thing that happened to Rocket League. The game is no longer purchasable on Steam, and new players are required to download the Epic Game Store to play the game.
Now, I’m not saying this is going to happen to Fall Guys, and I pray it doesn’t. The Fall Guys community is vast and diverse, and I’d hate to see it damaged by removing a large chuck on the community to make a dollar. I’m just looking at trends. That said, if you’re one of the many who are concerned that Fall Guys might depart Steam, perhaps it’s time to get the game on the platform.
As for Fall Guys going Free to Play, I don’t see that happening anytime soon. The game prints money, and it’s nowhere near past its prime. So making it go F2P would be silly, at least for the comment. With the acquisition of Mediatonic, Epic Games now has three of the most played games, both on console and PC; Rocket League, Fortnite, and now Fall Guys. Maybe this will finally allow Mediatonic to add crossplay. Especially since Fall Guys will be heading to Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch, later in 2021.
