The Order developer Ready at Dawn restructures to focus on independence

The Order: 1886 developer Ready at Dawn has announced that ex-Blizzard COO Paul Sams will be joining the studio as its new CEO.

Former CEO Ru Weerasuriya will now serve as the studio’s President and Chief Creative Officer, and the company will be expanding its operations to a business hub stationed in Austin, Texas.

In a statement, Weerasuriya explains that Sams was brought into the company to help Ready at Dawn realize a goal of maintaining independence and sole ownership of its own IP. The Order: 1886 was the studio’s first original IP, but it is also owned by Sony, who published the PlayStation 4 exclusive.

With Paul’s arrival, our studio in Irvine will turn its attention solely to creative and game development, while Austin will become the focus of our business endeavors,” explains Weerasuriya. “Paul’s expertise and industry knowledge positions us well to reach our company goals, including securing a strategic partner which will allow us to retain ownership of the transmedia IPs that we create.”

Sams and Weerasuriya further expanded on this new in-house initiative in an interview with GameInformer, where they hinted that this will push the studio to be more active on platforms outside the PlayStation ecosystem.

We have enjoyed a long and mutually beneficial relationship with Sony,” Sams began. “They are a great company with whom we have shared many successes over the years. As a result, it is hard to imagine not seeing our future games on one or more of the Sony platforms. At the same time, we have worked very hard to make sure that our engine and technology suite is multiplatform. What we did on the PS4 for The Order: 1886, we can also do today on Xbox One, PC, and on an additional unannounced platform.”

While Sams was unable to give specific numbers, Ready at Dawn is apparently happy with The Order: 1886’s sales, saying that the shooter is approaching the studio’s expected sales numbers.

While we would love to share with you how well The Order: 1886 has performed since it release, those are numbers that only Sony can divulge. Suffice it to say, we are very proud of that game, and we are well on our way to achieving the sales performance that we sought.”

Ready at Dawn has don port work and games using other studio’s IP until it released The Order: 1886 earlier this year. For more on Ready at Dawn’s first original IP, check out our spoilercast and thoughts on protagonist Sir Galahad.

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