Camouflaj is a

video game development Video game development (sometimes shortened to gamedev) is the process of creating a video game. It is a multidisciplinary practice, involving programming, design, art, audio, user interface, and writing. Each of those may be made up of more speci ...

company based in

Bellevue, Washington Bellevue ( ) is a city in the Eastside (King County, Washington), Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, located across Lake Washington from Seattle. It is the third-largest city in the Seattle metropolitan area, and the f ...

. Founded in 2011 by Ryan Payton, the studio is most known for developing '' République'', ''

Iron Man VR ''Marvel's Iron Man VR'' is a virtual reality first-person shooter video game developed by Camouflaj and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. Released for the PlayStation VR headset, it is based on the Marvel Comics ...

'', and '' Batman: Arkham Shadow''. The studio was acquired by

Meta Platforms Meta Platforms, Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Meta owns and operates several prominent social media platforms and communication services, including Facebook, Instagram, Threads ...

in 2022.

History

The studio was founded in September 2011 by Ryan Payton, who had previously worked at

Kojima Productions is a Japanese video game development studio founded in 2015 by Hideo Kojima, creator of the ''Metal Gear'' series. It is the spiritual successor to a production team inside Konami also known as Kojima Productions originally founded in 2005. The ...

and

343 Industries Halo Studios (formerly 343 Industries) is an American video game developer based in Redmond, Washington, part of Xbox Game Studios. Headed by Pierre Hintze, the studio is responsible for the Halo (franchise), ''Halo'' science fiction franchise, ...

. He left 343 Industries to found his own studio due to his lack of motivation working on ''

Halo 4 ''Halo 4'' is a 2012 first-person shooter video game developed by 343 Industries and published by Xbox Game Studios, Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360 video game console. ''Halo 4''s story follows a Human genetic enhancement, genetically enha ...

'' and his desire of working on games that are of smaller scale. Seeing the success of

mobile game A mobile game is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any Mobile device, portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet computer, table ...

such as ''

Infinity Blade ''Infinity Blade'' was an action role-playing game developed by Chair Entertainment and Epic Games and released through the Apple App Store on December 9, 2010. It was the first iOS video game to run on Unreal Engine 3. In the game, the unnamed ...

'', the studio began pitching their next project named '' République'' to various publishers such as

Bungie Bungie, Inc. is an American video game company based in Bellevue, Washington, and a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment. The company was established in May 1991 by Alex Seropian, who later brought in programmer Jason Jones (programme ...

. With no partner willing to publish the game, the studio decided to

crowdfund Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance, to fund projects "without standard financial ...

it through

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

. The project was funded on May 11, 2012 with a total of $555,662, and it was released episodically starting with "Episode 1: Exordium" in December 2013. The studio also partnered with

GungHo Online Entertainment is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. They are primarily known for hosting the Japanese server of '' Ragnarok Online'' (developed by its listed Korean subsidiary Gravity), as well as their development of '' Ragnarok DS'' for the N ...

in June 2015 to publish the game. ''République'' concluded with "Episode 5: Terminus" in March 2016. At

E3 2016 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016 (E3 2016) was the 22nd E3, during which hardware manufacturers and software developers and publishers from the video game industry presented new and upcoming products to attendees, primarily retailers and m ...

, Payton met with the head of

Marvel Games Marvel Games is the licensing and publishing brand for video games based on Marvel Comics, Marvel properties, and is also the video game division of Disney Interactive. Before the incorporation of Marvel Games, video games based on Marvel propert ...

, Jay Ong, who expressed interest in collaborating with the studio to work on a

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

game. The VR project, ''

'', was created with a team of more than 50 people. The game was released for

PlayStation VR The PlayStation VR (PS VR) is a virtual reality headset developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, which was released in October 2016. The headset works with the company's PlayStation 4 video game console and is forward compatible with PlaySta ...

in July 2020. In late 2020,

approached Camouflaj for the development of a new project with a bigger budget and larger scope. Camouflaj then began pitching for a Batman game to

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

and

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

for six months. The project later became '' Batman: Arkham Shadow'', with former members of

Rocksteady Studios Rocksteady Studios Limited is a British video game developer based in London. Founded on 13 December 2004, the studio is best known for its work in the ''Batman: Arkham'' series. The company is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Games. History Roc ...

contributing to the project. In March 2022, the studio opened a second office in

Kamakura , officially , is a city of Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. It is located in the Kanto region on the island of Honshu. The city has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 people per km2 over the tota ...

, Japan. In October 2022, Meta Platforms announced that it had fully acquired the studio. ''Arkham Shadow'' was released in October 2024 to critical acclaim, and it won Best VR/AR Game at

The Game Awards 2024 The Game Awards 2024 was an award show to honor the best video games of 2024. It was the eleventh show hosted by Geoff Keighley, creator and producer of the Game Awards, and held with a live audience at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Dece ...

and Immersive Reality Game of the Year at the 28th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards.

Games developed

References

External links

* {{Meta Horizon 2011 establishments in Washington (state) American companies established in 2011 Companies based in Bellevue, Washington Video game companies established in 2011 Video game development companies Video game companies of the United States 2022 mergers and acquisitions Meta Platforms acquisitions