Last year Sony announced they were partnering with Deviation Games, a start-up studio founded by Treyarch veterans Jason Blundell and Dave Anthony, to create a new PlayStation-exclusive IP. We later learned the studio had expanded with Deviation Games Canada. That said, we still haven’t heard much of anything about what the studio is actually working on, and now some somewhat concerning news has emerged – co-founded Jason Blundell has left the studio.
Blundell was the mastermind of the Zombies series a Treyarch and it seems he was directing Deviation’s debut project, so his loss is no small thing. But Deviation is also adding talent to their roster, bringing on board Louis Castle (Westwood Studios co-founder), Jonathan Hawkins and Dean Rymer (God of War series), and Tony Flame (another Treyarch vet).
— Deviation Games (@DeviationGames) September 8, 2022
“Deviation Games is announcing that Jason Blundell has left the studio. We appreciate the contributions Jason has made and we wish him the best in his future endeavors. Deviation will continue be led by CEO Dave Anthony, who also assumed the role of Game Director this past year and remains a guiding force as we look ahead.
We are excited to announce that Louis Castle has joined Deviation Games as Senior Vice President of Development. A video game industry veteran with two Lifetime Achievement awards, Louis co-founded Westwood Studios, best known for creating the legendary Command & Conquer franchise. Louis is joined by an incredible roster of industry veterans who recently joined the studio including God of War alumni Johathan Hawkins and Dean Rymer and Call of Duty: Black Ops guru Tony Flame. This plethora of talent makes Deviation uniquely equipped to continue leading the ever-evolving games industry into the future, including with the continued development of our previously-announced, groundbreaking AAA original IP.”
Again, we still don’t know what exactly Deviation Games is working on for PlayStation, but Dave Anthony did provide this vague description last year…
“We’re drawing on what we’ve learned over our collective decades making games, but we’re also out to make something fresh and brimming with innovation like you’ve never experienced before. 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.”
What do you think? Are Deviation Games and their new PlayStation IP in trouble? Or are these just natural growing pains on the way to bigger and better things?
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