Tonic Games Group, the parent of games studios Mediatonic, Irregular Corporation and Fortitude Games, announced that it will be acquired by Epic Games, the developers of Fortnite. The acquisition was motivated by Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout: a family-friendly multiplayer title inspired by TV gameshows. The game released on August 4^th, 2020 and quickly became the most downloaded PlayStation Plus game of all time after being made available for free to subscribers for one month. Since launch, it has delivered three seasons of new content, with a fourth in the pipeline.  

Fall Guys performed strongly at launch, but player numbers have dwindled in recent months

Within 24 hours of Fall Guys’ launch, the title reached over 1.5m total active players on Steam and PlayStation 4 consoles; six days later it had sold over 2m copies on Steam. Statements released by Devolver Digital announced that in less than one month cumulative sales grew by 250% on Steam (7m units) but this declined to growth of just 57% (11m units) between August and December 2020. Declining sales were mirrored by a decline in concurrent players on Steam: Fall Guys peaked at 146,522 average daily players during its launch month and has since decreased by 91% to 12,486 in February 2021. As expected, the game experienced a spike in popularity upon the launch of a new season, doubling the number of Steam concurrent players on launch day for both seasons two and three.

Fall Guys will strengthen Epic Games’ content offering and platform strategy

Epic Games operates a growing ecosystem of products that encompass various facets of the industry, that are increasingly interlinked and represent the building blocks for the company's long term vision of the 'metaverse'. These include Unreal Engine, Epic Games Store, Epic Online Services, Epic Games Publishing and multiple development studios which allow it to create an increasingly end-to-end product portfolio. The Fall Guys IP has the potential to diversify Epic Games’ portfolio and expand opportunities for multi-media experiences. The game fits perfectly into Epic’s repertoire of multiplayer content but uniquely captures the genre via a party/gameshow approach, boasting innovative esports and collaborative prospects. Fall Guys proved its cross-media potential via a fundraiser in which brands and influencers competed to get a custom skin in-game. Additionally, Fall Guys can attract new players to the Epic Games via the acquisition: as the game integrates new features such as Epic Games Accounts, users will be introduced to other Epic products.

Epic considers Fortnite and Fall Guys as distinct experiences that reach different audiences that are complimentary. While Fortnite has emerged as a platform in its own right, Fall Guys shares a similar potential and Epic is well positioned to transition the experience accordingly.

Growing Fall Guys through Epic Games’ strengths

Epic Games has proven its ability to elevate successful games to new heights. In 2019, the company acquired the studio behind Rocket League, Psyonix. Post-acquisition, Epic applied a free-to-play (FTP) model with monetisation via battle passes and in-game currency. This saw concurrent players double and the game has since maintained a higher average daily peak than any month before shifting to FTP. Fall Guys may adopt the FTP model once it maximises monetisation via full-game purchases. Firstly, the game must expand its addressable audience by launching on new platforms: on February 17^th, the game was announced for the Nintendo Switch and one day later the game was announced for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One.

Epic Games’ expertise and investment will allow Fall Guys to implement content updates strongly requested by fans such as cross-play, account systems, and squad modes. Such improvements will generate renewed interest from lapsed fans and cultivate a stronger community on social media.