Breakdown
- Ex-employees from the recently shut down Deviation Games studio have formed a new internal studio over at Sony.
- The team is led by Jason Blundell and is reportedly working on a new IP.
- This news follows mass layoffs from Sony's global workforce which came as a shock to many.
According to reports, the staff from a recently closed game studio, formerly Deviation Games, has partnered with Sony to join them as an internal studio. This comes off right after they announced several layoffs and shutdowns.
This report comes through Michael Anthony, former technical director for Deviation Games, on Linkedin. He noticed and announced, "Hey, I hear that a lot of previous Deviation Games employees have set up their own studio at Sony, working on an undisclosed new IP." This confirms that the team is working on a new IP, but doesn't confirm if it's a continuation of their previous work.
He then went on to support the team and added, "All the people I see working there that have signed up are top class developers and hope that you can create a top class new IP with your studio that hopefully gives you all the time you need to create a quality product and not have to deal with red tape from previous projects."
The team is reportedly being led by one of Deviation Games’ co-founders, chief creative officer Jason Blundell. While the exact details of his involvement and role at this new studio are unknown, fans have gone back and cross-referenced old posts.
They found an old post made in December from Deviation's former community manager who said they were working as a junior game designer for a PlayStation studio under Blundell.
This news comes as a surprise as Sony recently announced that it was going to “commence a reduction of our overall headcount globally by about 8% or about 900 people”. The PlayStation layoffs are planned for all of the company’s businesses around the world, subject to each country’s labour laws.
Deviation Games was founded back in 2020 by two veterans from the Call of Duty development team. However, the studio did not manage to even release its first-ever title and saw unfortunate setbacks, such as layoffs which were then followed by an unforeseen closure recently.
The company had backing and support from Sony early during its lifespan and was reportedly developing a "World-Class FPS" PlayStation exclusive title. That title never got to see the light of day, and we never really got any glimpses into it, either.
Perhaps this is Sony's way of making up to at least one company to which they pledged financial stability and support. However, it is more likely a joint effort from the previous management and ex-employees of Deviation Games to band together. We look forward to the team finally being able to show off their first original new IP.
If only this were possible for the rest of the gaming industry and passionate developers suffering from the repercussions of mass global layoffs. We can only hope for better times for all.