Deviation Games, the studio founded by Jason Blundell, creator of Call of Duty's Zombies mode and Treyarch veteran Dave Anthony, has shut down before it could ship the game it was developing in partnership with PlayStation.
The sad news was shared on LinkedIn Written by Christy Stahl, head of HR and operations at Deviation Games, who also said the team will be holding a networking event to help those affected by the studio's closure.
“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the closure of Deviation Games,” Stoll wrote. “I want to express my deepest gratitude to our entire team. Thank you for all of your hard work, dedication, and contributions to Deviation; I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to work with each and every one of you.
“For the entire video game industry, we will be hosting a networking event, which we would love to have any/all companies/studios hiring participate in. Please contact me directly if you are interested in attending.
“To all the deviants out there, we will always cherish the memories we made together. Thank you for being a part of our journey. Go get 'em!”
Deviation Games was revealed in June 2021, and Blundell and Anthony stated that they were working on a new IP that was in a very early stage of development. We still have to find out what this IP is, but Blundell shared a few words about their dreams for the project in 2021.
“We're drawing on what we've learned over our collective decades in the games industry, but we're also aiming to make something new and full of innovation that you've never experienced before,” Blundell wrote. “We're not afraid to say that our ambitions are very high: we're working on making 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.”
In 2023, several Deviation developers took to LinkedIn to announce that they were being let go after the studio experienced layoffs.
This is another example of layoffs and studio closures in 2023 and 2024 and comes after EA's decision to shut down Marcus Lehto's Ridgeline Games and shut down Rooster Teeth.
For more, check out our chat back in 2021 with Blundell and Anthony about the special experience of forming their studio.
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Adam Pankhurst is a staff writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @Adam Pankhurst and on Tik Tok.
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