Former Arkane Austin VR lead and lead artwork outsource supervisor, Eric Beyhl, has opened a brand new studio referred to as Cire Video games after securing financing from Meta.
Breaking the information on Linkedin, Beyhl defined he established Cire following the closure of Arkane Austin (one in all a number of inner studios torched by Microsoft final 12 months) after receiving backing from Meta via its multi-million greenback ‘Ignition’ speedy prototyping fund.
“Ignition was designed to assist bootstrap younger startups shaped within the midst of the sport trade’s ongoing mass layoffs, and the timing couldn’t have been higher,” defined Beyhl.
The Arkane veteran spent over a decade on the studio, initially becoming a member of the corporate as VR result in work on the Typhon Hunter growth for Prey.
Cire Video games is not restricted to VR completely, with Beyhl explaining the studio will “goal as many platforms as attainable” sooner or later.
Beyhl has recruited former colleagues, acquainted exterior companions, and some new faces to assist wrestle the studio’s debut undertaking into being. He additionally handed a particular because of Meta’s director of video games Chris Pruett, who formally introduced the studio throughout a GDC discuss this 12 months.
Meta dishes out funding amid layoffs and studio closures
Meta introduced Oculus Publishing Ignition in March 2024. This system aimed to offer funding to round 20 small-sized, newly-formed groups to assist them quickly construct prototypes for the Meta Quest 3. Purposes have been open till September 2024. Alongside Cire Video games, builders corresponding to Area Gnome Studio additionally acquired funding via this system (through LinkedIn).
“We perceive the latest challenges confronted by the sport growth trade and the sweeping influence it has had on platforms, publishers, studios, groups, and people,” reads an explainer on the Ignition web site. “In gentle of this, we created Oculus Publishing Ignition, a light-weight and speedy prototyping fund to help newly shaped studios banding collectively via these challenges.”
Final 12 months, Meta laid off staff inside its Actuality Labs division and shut down Echo developer Prepared at Daybreak, which the corporate acquired in 2020. It additionally shuttered augmented actuality results platform Spark, leaving some third-party results creators within the lurch.
Extra lately, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced plans to chop round 5 p.c of the corporate’s international workforce to “elevate the bar on efficiency administration.” The January announcement ushered within the third spherical of main layoffs on the firm lately, including to the 22,000 roles that have been reduce throughout 2022 and 2023.
