Sony Partner Deviation Games Shuttered Before Shipping Its First PS5 Project

It’s been said countless times, but it’s worth repeating: shipping games is hard. It’s especially difficult to cultivate new studios, regardless of whether they’re founded by veterans with insane talent, like ex-Treyarch veterans Jason Blundell and Dave Anthony in this instance. There was a lot of excitement around Deviation Games when the duo announced that it had established a new team and immediately entered into a relationship with PlayStation, but the company has been closed and the project is dead.

Kriste Stull shared the sad news on Linked In, which has since been confirmed by several ex-staffers. On the plus side, the firm will be holding a networking event to help those affected by the outcome find new employment.

“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the closure of Deviation Games,” Stull, who’s head of human resources and chief operations officer, said in a public 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 was founded in 2021 and was said to be working on an ambitious new intellectual property, although we never found out much about what it would entail or look like. Blundell said of the project: “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.”

Unfortunately, we won’t be learning more, because the studio has now closed and the project is dead. It’s a sad outcome, but sometimes bold ideas just don’t come together – even when they come with the best intentions!