Part of today’s Summer Game Fest featured the reveal of a brand new studio, Deviation Games, formed by former Treyarch devs Dave Anthony and Jason Blundell. Furthermore, Deviation Games is partnering with PlayStation on a “groundbreaking AAA new IP,” with more details to come at a later date.
Deviation Games signs with PlayStation to develop a new original IP: https://t.co/4geOpn9ds0 pic.twitter.com/yW9YfFgKWN
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) June 10, 2021
PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst also heralded the partnership between Deviation Games and PlayStation Studios.
Honored to announce that PlayStation Studios is partnering with Dave Anthony, Jason Blundell and their incredibly talented team @deviationgames on a groundbreaking AAA new IP
— Hermen Hulst (@hermenhulst) June 10, 2021
Anthony serves as the CEO of Deviation Games, while Blundell takes on the role of Chief Creative Officer. The studio is founded on the ideals of deviating from the norms. They want to “make games exactly the way [they] want to make them and exactly with you [they] want to make them with.”
During the Summer Game Fest unveiling of the studio, Blundell and Anthony talked about getting a closer look at the process that PlayStation goes through with its partners, which has given them a better understanding of exactly how PlayStation Studios keeps pumping out hit after hit and winning award after award.
Lifelong friends, Anthony and Blundell’s tenure at Treyarch, and within the games industry, is storied. Anthony wrote and directed both Black Ops and Black Ops II, while Blundell once held the position of co-studio head and led the charge on each new iteration of the series’ Zombies mode.
Deviation is far from a small studio. They’ve acquired a talent pool of more than 100 people, and are continuing to hire.
“I know what you’re thinking…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?” All we know thus far about their game is what they’ve said on the Summer Game Fest stage. ““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.”
They’ve got high ambitions for the coming AAA title, which they expect to “raise a few eyebrows.” With one of the keywords used for the Black Ops series having constantly been “mindfuckery,” Blundell and Anthony no doubt have a few twisted ideas brimming. They continued, “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.”
Deviation Games is the latest in PlayStation Studios partnerships with brand new studios to cultivate fresh IP. Jade Raymond’s new studio Haven, and Firewalk, a studio founded by veteran developers from Bungie, BioWare, and more are both partnered with PlayStation Studios to bring exciting and fresh PlayStation-exclusive titles.
Check out our Summer Season Pass event hub for all of the latest entertainment news throughout the summer, including everything announced and revealed at Summer Game Fest and E3 2021.
[Source: PlayStation Blog]
