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 (certainly one of a number of inner studios torched by Microsoft final yr) after receiving backing from Meta by means of its multi-million greenback ‘Ignition’ speedy prototyping fund.
“Ignition was designed to assist bootstrap younger startups fashioned 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 enlargement 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 challenge into being. He additionally handed a particular due to Meta’s director of video games Chris Pruett, who formally introduced the studio throughout a GDC speak this yr.
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 had been open till September 2024. Alongside Cire Video games, builders equivalent to Area Gnome Studio additionally acquired funding by means of this system (by way of LinkedIn).
“We perceive the current challenges confronted by the sport improvement 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 fashioned studios banding collectively by means of these challenges.”
Final yr, Meta laid off employees 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 just lately, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced plans to chop round 5 p.c of the corporate’s international workforce to “increase the bar on efficiency administration.” The January announcement ushered within the third spherical of main layoffs on the firm in recent times, including to the 22,000 roles that had been lower throughout 2022 and 2023.
