Epic Games Buys Mediatonic, the Fall Guys Guys

Epic Games has decided to once again spend some of the phat stacks that Fortnite has dropped into its lap, and has purchased Mediatonic, the folks behind last year’s surprise hit, Fall Guys.

“We are thrilled to announce that Tonic Games Group is joining the Epic Games family. Tonic Games is the development company behind the hit sensation, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout.

For Fall Guys fans, your gameplay isn’t changing and Epic will continue to invest in making the game a great experience for players across platforms. Your favorite colorful beans will still stumble through the chaos on PC, PlayStation, and soon Nintendo Switch and Xbox. Check out this blog post for answers to all your Fall Guys questions.”

 
The only thing surprising about this news is that it took this long to happen: both Microsoft and Epic Games have been on the hunt for promising new studios for a while now, and a purchase of the biggest — albeit not longest-lasting — hit from 2020 seemed like a foregone conclusion.

The FAQ that’s linked above assures people that the game’s free-to-play future is still a mystery, they have no plans to remove Fall Guys from any of the platform’s it's currently — or planning — to launch on, and that Mediatonic picked Epic Games because “We’ve been mutual fans for a while and as we’ve gotten to know the Epic team better, it turns out we have a lot in common and share a lot of the same goals.”

Given a mutual love of money and a desire for more of it, that checks out.

More importantly, it also explains that, at least for now, Fall Guys will remain purchasable on Steam, unlike the last smash hit that Epic Games bought, Rocket League, which was turned into an Epic Game Store exclusive not long after they were bought out. Good news, but also, probably a sign that the game is bleeding players faster than we might have first thought.

Either way, the wheels of capitalism continue to spin…