Facebook Is Buying Another Virtual Reality Game Studio

(Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. said it has acquired development studio Sanzaru Games to join the Oculus gaming group inside its virtual-reality division.

Sanzaru has produced a number of games, including from the Sonic the Hedgehog and Marvel Studios franchises, according to its website. The studio’s most popular VR game, Asgard’s Wrath, was highly reviewed at the time of its release in October, and was included in several games-of-the-year lists.

The “vast majority” of Sanzaru’s nearly 100 employees will join Oculus, including the company’s founders, and Sanzaru will operate independently out of their existing offices, Facebook said Tuesday. Terms of the acquisition weren’t disclosed. The deal comes three months after Facebook acquired Beat Games, the maker of another popular VR game called Beat Saber.

“We’re exploring many ways to accelerate VR,” a Facebook spokeswoman said in an email. “We believe it is great for content to be developed outside of Oculus and Facebook. That said, there are instances where it will make sense for us to have a deeper stake in order to more fully support content development and enhance the user experience.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Kurt Wagner in San Francisco at kwagner71@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Andrew Pollack, Molly Schuetz

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.