Deviation Games, the studio founded by Call of Duty veterans Dave Anthony and Jason Blundell back in 2021, has closed, according to a LinkedIn post by Deviation’s head of HR. The studio had partnered with Sony to develop a new IP that would have been a PlayStation exclusive.
“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the closure of Deviation Games,” the post from Deviation chief HR officer Kriste Stull reads. “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.”
Stull also announces that Deviation will be holding a networking event for its former employees, encouraging other studios and companies who are currently hiring to attend.
The AAA studio was initially formed on the heels of the pandemic-led gaming boom, boasting over 100 employees within its first year of operation. Ambitious from the start, early quotes from Deviation’s founders were highly optimistic about the future of the studio.
“It’s absolutely mind-blowing,” Anthony said of the Sony partnership in a GamesIndustry.biz feature. “We have never been in a situation like this before, where we’ve got everything we could possibly ask for. From day one of the studio we have complete financial security for years and years to come.” Later in the piece he clarified that Deviation Games was a “a fully independent studio” that was “independently backed and financed” outside of Sony’s influence.
Deviation expanded rapidly with the opening of a second studio in Canada in 2022, but later that year co-founder Jason Blundell parted ways with the company. A round of layoffs followed in 2023, and now the company has announced it will be closing its doors for good, before its debut game was able to be announced.
Sony, who was set to partner with Deviation on its debut game, is one of many companies in the industry that has been cutting back on costs in the last year, including cancelling projects and undergoing layoffs of its own. Last year it announced it would be halving its plans for live service games on PlayStation, and earlier this year cut 900 jobs, as well as cancelling a number of planned games.
