Deviation Games has shut down, according to employees

The Sony-partnered studio is no more.

The Sony-partnered Deviation Games has shut down, according to numerous posts from former employees.

“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the closure of Deviation Games,” wrote chief HR and operations officer, Kriste Stull, over on LinkedIn. “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.”

“After the closure of Deviation Games last Friday [either 1 or 8 March], I’m actively seeking Character Artist roles,” wrote senior character artist Alex Hunstad, again on LinkedIn.

There hasn’t been an official statement fom Deviation Games or its partner Sony as yet.

Deviation Games was founded back in 2021 by former Call of Duty leads Dave Anthony and Jason Blundell. The studio partnered with Sony to create a new triple-A title.

“We are honored to partner with and invest in daring creatives, recognizing full well the challenges of building teams from the ground up and developing successful new IPs. We’re very enthusiastic about the creative vision that Deviation is passionately executing for their first, original project,” said PlayStation Studios head, Hermen Hulst, back at the announcement of the studio.

Blundell left the studio eighteen months later, and Deviation reportedly laid off around 90 employees back in May 2023 (via Eurogamer).

More than 7,000 layoffs have rocked the video games industry in 2024 alone. Impacted developers and publishers over 2023 and 2024 include Rooster Teeth, PlayStation, Microsoft, Deck Nine, Supermassive Games, Devolver, Eidos-Montreal, Riot Games, Thunderful Embracer and Gearbox, Twitch (again), Unity, Codemasters, 505 Games’ Digital Bros, Amazon, Bungie, Media Molecule, Ubisoft, Aussie studio League of Geeks, Versus Evil and many more.