Ready at Dawn Studios LLC, sometimes known as 'R@D', is an American video game developer located in Irvine, California and is composed of former members of Naughty Dog and Blizzard Entertainment. Formed in 2003, the company has primarily worked on games for the PlayStation Portable (PSP), most notably the Sony Computer Entertainment intellectual property God of War and Daxter.
History[]
Ready at Dawn was founded in 2003 in Irvine, California, USA by Ru Weerasuriya, Andrea Pessino, Didier Malenfant, and former members of the Sony Computer Entertainment subsidiary Naughty Dog. They released their first game, Daxter. The company finished working on their second PSP game, God of War: Chains of Olympus as well as a Wii port of Ōkami, with added motion controls.
In June 2008 it was confirmed that the company have ceased developing games for the PSP, and that they had returned the relevant development kits to Sony. However, reports claim that the developer received new development kits after returning. Their next game was God of War: Ghost of Sparta, collaboratively developed with Sony's Santa Monica Studio for the PSP, with their new proprietary engine. Ready at Dawn released the God of War: Origins Collection for the PlayStation 3 on September 13, 2011. This collection is a port of their two God of War games for the PSP, Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta, to the PS3 with high-definition graphics, DualShock 3 support, Trophies, and Stereoscopic 3D, the first God of War release to support this feature.
Ready at Dawn licensed ProFX, a technology to procedurally generate texture files, reducing their size. In October 2009, Ready at Dawn began working on a new game engine. The Ready At Dawn Engine is said to be a wholly console-centric platform, integrated with a suite of third-party tools that require no additional license. These tools include 3D content editing, audio, user interface and asset management systems. In July 2010, it was announced that Ready at Dawn had fired thirteen employees, citing the company's status as independent as the main reason behind the firings. In early 2012, the company began hiring for the development of a third-person action-adventure game for a “next generation home console game system.” The game was later revealed at E3 2013 as 'The Order: 1886'.
Works[]
Game title | North American Release | Platform | Metacritic score |
Daxter | March 14, 2006 | PlayStation Portable | 85/100 |
God of War: Chains of Olympus | March 4, 2008 | 91/100 | |
Ōkami | April 15, 2008 | Wii | 90/100 |
God of War: Ghost of Sparta | November 2, 2010 | PlayStation Portable | 86/100 |
God of War: Origins Collection | September 13, 2011 | PlayStation 3 | 84/100 |
The Order: 1886 | February 20, 2015 | PlayStation 4 | 63/100 |
Deformers | April 21, 2017 | PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Xbox One | 60/100 |
Lone Echo | July 20, 2017 | Oculus Rift | 89/100 |