Epic Games has acquired Fall Guys developer Mediatonic according to a surprising new announcement, adding one of 2020's biggest games to its already impressive portfolio of digital entertainment.
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout made waves when it debuted in late 2020 for doing Battle Royale a little differently. Players were placed in a game show in the style of Wipeout or MXC (a.k.a. Takeshi's Castle), progressing through single-elimination challenges until one winner remained.
The game proved phenomenally popular at launch, especially since it was a PlayStation Plus title — it quickly became the most-downloaded PS Plus game of all time. That success has apparently attracted the attention of Epic Games, so much so that it has elected to acquire the Fall Guys developer Mediatonic.
What Happens to Fall Guys Developer Mediatonic Now?
Epic Games' acquisition of Fall Guys developer Mediatonic was announced in a characteristically meme-laden tweet on the game's official account. Such an acquisition raises a number of questions, however, and Mediatonic was well-prepared to respond with a F.A.Q.
Mediatonic's announcement on its website is getting absolutely slammed after the announcement. Fortunately, industry analyst and commentator Ryan "Toadsanime" Brown highlighted some of the bigger points of this announcement in a tweet.
Is Fall Guys Leaving Steam?
No, Fall Guys is not leaving Steam. A lot of the game's success is owed to that platform and it doesn't look like it will be going away anytime soon.
"Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout will remain purchasable on Steam and PlayStation," read the blog post from Mediatonic. "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."
It should be noted, however, that Epic Games had previously acquired the Rocket League developer and removed that game from Steam — as you can see from the Rocket League Steam Store page, it's no longer available for purchase on that platform. We may very well see the same thing happen with Fall Guys in the future.
Is Fall Guys Going Free-To-Play?
Fall Guys is not going free-to-play anytime soon, either — Mediatonic's blog post notes that it has "nothing to announce" on the subject at this point in time.
That said, Epic Games owes a lot of its recent success to the power of its free-to-play Battle Royale game Fortnite; it's certainly possible that we'll see Fall Guys shift to a free-to-play model at a later date. For now, you can buy Fall Guys for PC and PS4 via its official website starting at $19.99 or your regional equivalent.
Update (03/02/21, 2:50 PM) – A news post from Epic Games notes that it hasn't just acquired Mediatonic — it's acquired the Tonic Games Group which also covers the game developers Irregulator Corporation (PC Building Simulator) and Fortitude Games.
What do you think of Epic Games acquiring Fall Guys developer Mediatonic? Do you think this is ultimately good news or bad news for Fall Guys and its community of players? Let us know in the comments below!
