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VR developer Sanzaru Games acquired by Facebook

The makers of Asgard's Wrath have a new home, as Sanzaru Games has been acquired by social media monolith Facebook.

Ozzie Mejia

February 25, 2020 2:00 PM

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If the name Sanzaru Games sounds familiar to you, they may ring a bell for being most recently associated with PlayStation's Sly Cooper franchise. For console users, they're mainly tied to the Sly Cooper remastered trilogy and the follow-up Sly 4. But now Sanzaru is about to be tied up with another big name, Facebook. On Tuesday, the team at Oculus welcomed Sanzaru Games to the Facebook family, announcing that the social media giant had acquired the developer.

"Sanzaru is a veteran game developer—having shipped titles to multiple platforms in the past—as well as a VR pioneer," reads the announcement on the Oculus Blog. "They've created four titles for the Oculus Platform since 2016, when they were the first developer to partner with the Oculus Studios team. They approach game design with three pillars in mind: great design, beautiful art (including animation and audio), and strong tech. It is this foundation that enabled Sanzaru to build a game as rich as Asgard's Wrath, and it's a strong foundation they will continue to build upon as we all push VR forward."

Sanzaru's immediate future with Facebook and Oculus is currently unknown. However, their resume points to a positive future with virtual reality. Aside from the Sly Cooper games, Sanzaru has a full library of VR titles that includes Ripcoli, VR Sports Challenge, Marvel Powers United VR, and the recently-released Asgard's Wrath.

While there are no details as to what Sanzaru will be working on next, Oculus does note that the current priority will be shifting the Sanzaru team over to the Oculus Studios team, though Sanzaru will continue to operate out of the offices in the U.S. and Canada. This is the second major acquisition from Facebook in recent months, following the November acquisition of Beat Saber VR developer Beat Games.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?