2023-05-13 20:19:36
Second slap for the young Deviation Games studio: following losing its co-founder last September, the studio had to lay off a large number of employees, up to ninety according to some sources. This situation occurs while the studio was in full development of a new license for PlayStation.
It seems that Sony is cleaning up its partner studios: while the Firewalk studio is joining the ranks of Playstation Studios, others are less fortunate. This is notably the case of Deviation Games, whose position and projects seem to be compromised. The former Community Manager, being one of the recent licensees mentions in particular that “things are not going as well as they might”. And in fact, it is certain that the departure of Jason Blundell last September must have complicated things for the studio.
If it is certain that there remained veterans of the best studios, like Jonathan Hawkins, Dean Rymer (God of War) ou Tony Flame (Call of Duty) prior to these latest layoffs, Jason Blundell had played a major role in the development of the various Call of Duty, and was therefore an asset for Sony. In particular, he was illustrated on Black Ops 1, Black Ops 2, and the zombie mode of Black Ops 3 in particular.
It’s hard to get an idea of what will happen to the studio’s project, which seems very ambitious: in 2021, the Deviation Games team, then made up of around a hundred employees, was already working on a project for a game ” huge, with a lot of content, with a lot of action, very energetic”, according to the co-founder of the studio, Dave Anthony. This is then the first project of the studio, which was to be a brand new license for Playstation. No information has been shared regarding the status of the project, despite rumors of a potential cancellation following a concurrent wave of layoffs at Final Strike Games which, according to the same rumors, was a supporting studio on this project.
In any case, it is certain that Sony is refocusing its investments: last week, it was the PixelOpus studio that paid the price for Sony’s budget cuts. The Pixel Opus studio, behind the Concrete Genie game, announced its closure, scheduled for June 2, 2023. This announcement then marked the end of speculation regarding the title planned for the Playstation 5 in collaboration with the Sony Pictures Animation studio mentioned by the studio on recruitment ads.
As for Deviation Games, the future is uncertain, no official statement has been made regarding the plans, or even the general situation in which the studio is.. It is certain that the development of a large-scale FPS for the Playstation, which, given the experience of the heads of the studio was expected to be the type of game developed by Deviation Games, is an important issue at the moment. An issue that seems to be well understood by Sony: while the studio aims to release many service games by 2026, it was announced in last year’s tax report that the budget allocated to acquisitions would increase by 20 % for 2023.
1684015714
#Wave #layoffs #Deviation #Games
