It is potentially one of the biggest acquisitions of this year. Epic Games, the publisher of Fortnite and owner of Epic Store, announced the acquisition of Mediatonic, the young development studio behind the indie hit Fall Guys.

Unexpected success last summer Fall Guys It is a battle royale where 100 players compete to win a crazy race. The game has become the center of attention thanks in large part to being free on PlayStation. In fact, it was offered to all PS + subscribers for a month. It also had great success on Steam, the rival platform of the Epic Store. The game is also expected this year on Switch and Xbox.

Unexpected

The acquisition of Mediatonic by Epic Games caused the surprise. If he is better known today for Fortnite, Epic Games had previously worked on franchises targeting a more mature audience, including Unreal tournament Y Gears of war. Meanwhile, it has changed strategy after the success of Fortnite, a battle royale in which 100 players compete in a deathmatch on a gigantic map.

“Beyond the shared vision of our teams, we see enormous potential in joining forces with Epic,” explains Paul Croft, co-founder of Tonic Games.

Epic Games’ acquisition of the studio should provide developers with considerable resources without changing their roadmap. The release of the game on Switch and Xbox remains and Fall Guys It will continue to be available for sale on Steam.

Before Fall Guys, the studio had specialized mainly in the development of mobile games. He had also collaborated with Microsoft working on Gear pop Y Fable Fortune, two spinoff series well known to Xbox owners.