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Deviation Games ( Former COD Veterans , Est. 2020 , Was Dev for New AAA Sony IP Game ) shuts down

Ryuichi Naruhodo

Ryuichi Naruhodo

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The studio was established in 2020 by Call of Duty veterans Dave Anthony and Jason Blundell, and in 2021 announced it was developing a “groundbreaking AAA original intellectual property” with Sony Interactive Entertainment. In September 2019 ( Typo , OP Edit : 2022 ) , Blundell announced that he had left the studio and reportedly now works at Sony Interactive Entertainment.
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“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the closure of Deviation Games,” Deviation Games chief human resources and operations officer Kriste Stull said in a LinkedIn post. “I want to express my deepest gratitude to our entire team. Thank you for all your hard work, dedication, and contributions to Deviation; I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have worked with each and every one of you.”

Deviation Games will soon host a networking event for the staff affected by the closure, which it is inviting all hiring companies to attend.
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https://www.gematsu.com/2024/03/deviation-games-shuts-down
 
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Wow, shuttle down entirely?
It.seems the "groundbreaking AAA" route wasn't the safest

Hope the best for the workers
 
I guess Sony did not like what they were investing in, decided to back down on the deal and Deviation was left with no money?

These are terrible news for the developers, more people out of a job :/ You'd expect a partnership with a huge company like Sony to bring some stability but can't even be safe in that situation.
 
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That suck, having to shut down before you can even show the world what you have been working on but funding drying up when even established breadwinner studios are slimming down right now, makes sense. Hope all of them land of their feet - maybe they can regroup and work on something with a smaller scale.
 
cw_sasuke said:
That suck, having to shut down before you can even show the world what you have been working on but funding drying up when even established breadwinner studios are slimming down right now, makes sense. Hope all of them land of their feet - maybe they can regroup and work on something with a smaller scale.
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Agreed, it stinks and must be personally brutal for the employees affected.
 
New studios making triple-A games are risky, no one wants another Callisto Protocol. I find it odd they were given the green light to begin with.
 
Godzilla said:
I guess Sony did not like what they were investing in, decided to back down on the deal and Deviation was left with no money?

These are terrible news for the developers, more people out of a job :/ You'd expect a partnership with a huge company like Sony to bring some stability but can't even be safe in that situation.
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I guess the writing was on the wall already when Sony purchased most of the startup studios they were partnered at the time but left Deviation out. Not to mention they just started poaching a lot of the talent (mostly lead roles) from Deviation midway through last year.

Sony probably pulled funding early 2023, then the layoffs came. There was very little point in keeping the lights on, especially with how office cost and wages are skyhigh in LA... They really wouldn't be able to ship anything after letting 80% of the team go.
 
Read this tweet:


so sony is hiring former Deviation Devs.

JOB UPDATE!I've been wanting to say this for a while, but now I finally can! I'm a Junior Game Designer
@PlayStation Studios.
And I work for Jason Blundell.
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Wait? How many times they were shut down, twice?
 
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