News
Vertigo Games Acquires Amsterdam-Based Studio Force Field
The developers behind Arizona Sunshine and the upcoming After The Fall, Vertigo Games, have announced that they have acquired all of the shares of the Amsterdam-based studio, Force Field. According to the statement released by Vertigo, Force Field will be renamed to Vertigo Amsterdam and will continue work on an unannounced AAA game on a well-based IP.
Richard Stitselaar, CEO at Vertigo Games said: “With multiple AAA VR game productions in the pipeline for the upcoming years, Vertigo Games continues to rapidly expand. Known for their AAA production standards and pioneering VR game development expertise, we are thrilled to welcome the Force Field team to the Vertigo Games family. Together we are a major step closer to building a global VR powerhouse that will bring even bigger, high production value, and cutting-edge VR games to players around the world.”
.@Forcefieldxr joins Vertigo Games as Vertigo Studios Amsterdam! They are one of the world's largest game studios that exclusively focuses on #VRgaming. We're thrilled to work on new AAA #VRgames with them!
Read more at https://t.co/ZX4aA0fMgt#VR #VirtualReality #VRgamedev pic.twitter.com/sptXo4KQeq
— 🚦 Vertigo Games 🚦 (@vertigogames) August 5, 2021
Force Field has developed multiple VR apps over the past five years, from full-on games to experiential pieces. In the early days of the Oculus Rift, it developed an isometric shooter named Landfall and, more recently, it’s released Time Stall on the Oculus Quest. Its non-gaming experiences, meanwhile, include Anne Frank House VR and National Geographic Explore VR.
“Having spent years on the cutting edge of VR game development, creating showcase games and experiences for leading VR companies, we have built a world-class VR team capable of delivering best-in-class games,” said Arthur Houtman, CEO of Vertigo Studios Amsterdam. “Today we enter a new phase of growth as part of Vertigo Games, who are not only one of the most successful VR game development studios, but also a leading VR publisher and part of the immensely diverse global Koch Media / Embracer Group, allowing us to fully leverage our company's potential.”
The acquisition is the latest in a series of expansions by Vertigo Game following the core team itself being acquired by Koch Media/Embracer Group in 2020. In February, it announced it had bought the VR arcade platform, SpringboardVR. As well as developing and releasing its own experiences the studio is also publishing titles from other VR developers, and earlier this year, announced it would be publishing the next game from A Fisherman’s Tale team, Innerspace.
Aside from the news of the acquisition, the core development team at Vertigo Games is currently working on the upcoming zombie shooter, After the Fall. The game was recently delayed from its summer launch window and is now expected to release some time later in 2021 for the Oculus Quest 2, PSVR, and PC VR headsets. The original Quest version has been pushed into 2022 with no specific launch window stated.
