Sony has always been keen on acquiring first-party studios for to make more PlayStation exclusives. A recent report from Insider Gaming suggests that Sony might be trying to build a new first-party studio out of former Deviation Games employees.
The rumor started circulating following mass layoffs at Deviation Games earlier this year and their former employees revealing their job descriptions recently on LinkedIn. Fred Thomson revealed in his job experience section that he is working on an unannounced project under Sony Interactive Entertainment as Principal Game Designer.
Jason Blundells Project:
“Leading the design for an unannounced project!”#PlayStation5 #PS5 #PlayStation #PlayHasNoLimits pic.twitter.com/BqCCL1t5WT
— @Zuby_Tech (@Zuby_Tech) December 26, 2023
Industry veteran, Adam Rosas, who has worked with Treyarch/Activision is also working at the same place now as well. Additionally, Pat Dwyer also joined Sony Interactive Entertainment during the same time as well. Lastly, Principal Animator of Deviation Games, Kristen Sych also joined the company and started an internet-wide speculation.
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— @Zuby_Tech (@Zuby_Tech) December 26, 2023
Since all these highly talented individuals joined during the June to August period, right after leaving Deviation Games, fans anticipate that PlayStation might be working on building a new studio. Knowing that Sony might be laying off many employees from their successful studios like Insomniac Games, it might have been done to support in that time.
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— @Zuby_Tech (@Zuby_Tech) December 26, 2023
All the newly joined experts have worked on famous shooter titles like Call of Duty, Titanfall, and Battlefield. So there’s a possibility that the new studio could be working on a first-person game that the world is yet to see.
Looking back, in late September 2022, Jason Blundell, the mind behind campaigns of Call of Duty left Deviation Games. It is now being speculated that all these recent hires for Sony Interactive Entertainment are working under him.
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— @Zuby_Tech (@Zuby_Tech) December 26, 2023
Following the acquisition of Activation by Microsoft, PlayStation fans have been skeptical about losing their Call of Duty franchise. Observing the talents Sony has acquired this year, all of them are skilled in the first-person genre and worked on Call of Duty games in the past, so this could have been done as a safety measure.
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— @Zuby_Tech (@Zuby_Tech) December 26, 2023
Interesting. Ex-activision too. Would it be safe to say there’s some FPS pedigree there?
— GimmeBoss (@gimmebosscoffee) December 26, 2023
Fans are happy to hear that Sony is working on bringing these industry experts to build a shooter game which they badly want. But, they are more concerned about making the Call of Duty Zombies-like game, which fans love. Additionally, it was found out that Bend Studios and Naughty Dog worked on an unannounced project together, and it might be for this one.
Why did Deviation Games close its doors despite being backed by PlayStation?
Deviation Games was founded by Activision veterans Dave Anthony and Jason Blundell in 2020. The studio got a lot of attention since both of these people have worked on iconic Call of Duty titles that fans adore. While starting a partnership with Sony, CEO Dave Anthony even quoted the following:
We’re not afraid to say that our ambitions are super high: we’re setting out to make a huge, content-rich game with a focus on a lot of action and a lot of energy, but let’s leave it at that for now and hopefully it won’t be long before we can share more.
However, the journey of Deviation Games came to a halt following the departure of their co-founder and chief creative officer, Jason Blundell in September 2022. No reasons were stated regarding the departure of the individual and soon many other employees started to get laid off too.
So PlayStation has dealt with a security breach and ransomware attacks on Insomniac Studios. And their plan to settle that is…to Layoff people from Insomniac and other studios? https://t.co/mvdf1ftqJr pic.twitter.com/6J1KHLRqka
— ShellshockPrime (@ShellshockPrime) December 21, 2023
Back in May 2023, it was reported by Video Games Chronicle that Deviation Games faced a massive layoff and had to let go of almost 90 employees. Even though the studio signed a publishing agreement with Sony to work on a new IP, no update was released regarding its progress, which led to recent rumors being spread.
