Sony Interactive Entertainment and Deviation Games announce partnership to develop brand-new original IP

Sony Interactive Entertainment and Los Angeles-based studio Deviation Games have announced a partnership to develop a “groundbreaking AAA original intellectual property.”

Deviation Games was founded by Dave Anthony and Jason Blundell, who previously worked on the Call of Duty series at Treyarch.

Here is the full message from Deviation Games CEO Dave Anthony on the PlayStation Blog:

It’s been a wild and crazy roller coaster ride this last year, building a new studio and hiring a ton of great talent amid the pandemonium of the COVID-19 lockdown. What an incredible journey so far and finally the day that marks the beginning of our next chapter has arrived! Today we are thrilled to announce a landmark deal for Deviation Games, working with Sony Interactive Entertainment to develop a brand-new original IP.

When my partner Jason Blundell and I first met decades ago, we often dreamt about having our own studio, making games our way with our own team of like-minded developers, and building a community where lasting friendships are created. That dream has become a reality today. We feel so fortunate to have this incredible opportunity—one for Jason and I to build something completely new from the ground up, to fearlessly innovate and forge an incredible community and legacy.

We call ourselves Deviators. And as Jason describes it, “Another way of saying Deviator is Renaissance mindset. Deviators are not only passionate about their own discipline, but they love others too. We believe that is what is unique and special about our studio, the culture, the team, and this project. From experience, young determined studios need rock solid support to thrive. That’s why it means so much that PlayStation is partnering with us on our first game. As you all know–having enjoyed the amazing PlayStation Studios portfolio–they know what it takes to make great games. To have a partner like that behind us makes the road ahead simply breathtaking.”

I know what you’re thinking as you read this. What kind of game are we making? How long have we already been working on it? Is it story based? Multiplayer? Co-op? Or all of the above and more? When is it coming out? While I can confirm development is already underway, it’s really early for us to be going into specific details. 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.

As for today, I’m here to say: keep an eye on us—we’ve brought on amazing talent from around the world, we’re over 100 Deviators and growing fast, and we have an incredible partner behind us in Sony Interactive Entertainment.

To our fans, particularly those who’ve followed some of our team members’ past work over the years: thank you for all your support, particularly now as we venture into creating something for ourselves. Follow our studio channels for all the latest and stay tuned. We might be quiet for a little while but next time we can talk specifically about what we’re working on; we’re confident it will raise a few eyebrows!