Yesterday, Epic Games announced the acquisition of the game development studio AQUIRIS, following an earlier investment and publishing deal signed with the company last year.
AQUIRIS, the first Latin American studio owned by Epic, will be renamed Epic Games Brasil. Founded in 2007, the studio headquartered in Porto Alegre, Brazil, has made itself known with the arcade racing Horizon Chase series as well as Wonderbox: The Adventure Maker.
Their latest game, Horizon Chase 2, launched in late 2022 on the Apple Arcade platform, and it is expected to be released this year on PC and consoles, too.
Unfortunately, according to the press release, it sounds like AQUIRIS will be put on Fortnite duty going forward. More specifically, they will focus on creating 'groundbreaking content and social experiences' within Epic Games' ever-growing metaverse experiment.
Recently, Epic also doubled down on Fortnite with the release of the Unreal Editor, which allows modders and map makers to create far more complex content with a dedicated PC application, greatly expanding what was previously possible with the game's Creative Mode.
Their creations will be monetized, leading to comparisons with Roblox, though Epic Games EVP Saxs Persson explained how the company is trying to ensure the whole process is smoother in Fortnite.
We're taking a different approach. One is: our creators can't directly monetise. They are paid based on the quality of engagement that they made. So there's no incentive to sell golden swords that gate progression. So you kind of rule out a whole category of things that we don't think is good for the ecosystem at any stage, and in particular now at this stage.
Following the incredible success of Fortnite, Epic Games has acquired many companies, though some of them, such as 3Lateral, Quixel, RAD Game Tools, Sketchfab, and Bandcamp, were purchased because they could bolster the Unreal Engine's toolset. When it comes to game development companies, the acquisition list includes Psyonix (Rocket League), Harmonix (Guitar Hero, Rock Band), Mediatonic (Fall Guys), and now AQUIRIS.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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