Epic Games Acquires 'Fall Guys' Developer: Here's Why It's A Big Deal

One of the hottest games of 2020 is part of an acquisition announced Tuesday in the video game sector.

What Happened: Epic Games, which is 40% owned by Tencent Holdings ADR TCEHY, reported it is acquiring Tonic Games Group. The acquisition gives Epic Games ownership of the developer of “Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout.”

Epic Games assured fans that gameplay would not be changing. The company will “continue to invest in making the game a great experience for players across platforms.”

Features like account systems, cross-play and squad versus squad were listed by the company.

Related Link: Fall Guys Going Mobile In China Thanks To Bilibili

Why It’s Important: The “Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout” game is exclusive to PC and Playstation 4 and Playstation 5 from Sony Corp SNE. The game is set to be released for the Nintendo Switch and Xbox consoles from Nintendo Co, Ltd. NTDOY and Microsoft Corporation MSFT respectively later this summer.

Epic Games said it was not moving “Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout” to a free-to-play model at this time. The company did not rule out making the move in the future. “Rocket League” developer Psyonix was acquired by Epic Games in 2019. The game was changed to a free-to-play model from its $19.99 purchase price after the acquisition.

“Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout” was the most successful launch on PC since “Overwatch” in 2016. In its debut month in August 2020, the game grossed $185 million from 8.2 million copies sold and in-game currency on the PC, according to The Gamer.

“Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout” uses the Unity game engine from Unity Software U, which is a rival to the Unreal platform from Epic Games.

Epic Games raised $1.78 billion at a $17.3 billion valuation in August. The funding round included a $250 million investment from Sony. Tencent paid $330 million for its 40% stake in 2013, which was worth nearly $7 billion in August.

Price Action: Shares of Tencent are down 1.52% to $89.91 at the close of market Tuesday.

(Photo: Fall Guys Wiki via Wiki Commons)