Deviation Games Has Shut Down - Ex CoD Devs, Were Creating New IP for PlayStation

Crispy Gamer said:
This was probably the Sci-fi shooter that was canceled no?
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Ronin_7 said:
They Saw Sony money and stopped giving a shit likely. Well there is the 🪓.
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When I first checked the website I thought there was something wrong and I clicked a Deviation website that had nothing to do with video games. I thought I clicked on a site for outdoors activities and corporate team building events.

I then clicked back to GAF and saw the logos matched, so it is the game maker site.
 
StreetsofBeige said:
When I first checked the website I thought there was something wrong and I clicked a Deviation website that had nothing to do with video games. I thought I clicked on a site for outdoors activities and corporate team building events.

I then clicked back to GAF and saw the logos matched, so it is the game maker site.
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Crazy Fucking shit lmao they open studios for activities first not work.
 
Ronin_7 said:
Crazy Fucking shit lmao they open studios for activities first not work.
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Makes sense to me. Every employee on their home page isn't even working. You got bowling, 3D movies, tug of war and even playing follow the leader down an escalator.

They got more home page space devoted to selling swag and soccer jerseys than focusing on games.

They got one shot of their office and it's completely empty as if nobody has even been there. I'd take a bet that's not even their office but a mock up for a photographer pic. You never know. They might not even have one. Everyone is WFH.
 
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StealthGoblin said:
Hmm. This is quite concerning. Sony looks to have been very cut-throat with their latest reviews.

I was expecting to see something of this at the showcase, but maybe it is a lot further out and the vertical slice stuff needs more time in the oven before they build out for full development.
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I honestly think they're rethinking the GaaS/live service strategy. Remember originally it was going to be 10 (12?) games. Just way too many right off the bat. Scaling it back to a few choice cuts showing the best promise is for the best, that way you can put resources to them to grow even more if they take off.

Also, it seems some of the games they were funding in that regard were maybe too similar. Do you really need a scifi-military shooter from Deviation if Bungie are probably going to make something in that style with their next game, and Destiny 2 already covers that fix from a different angle? And that's on top of Firesprite's game, which is yet another FPS probably also scifi-military themed.

In a way I think this is a good thing. Yeah Sony need a few more MP games and they are in the works, but maybe they just had too much with 10-12 of them in development and decided they only need some of them instead. If it means more single-player marquee games and/or some unique AA games with legacy IP, then I welcome the decision. And like I said, the MP live-service/GaaS titles are still coming. It's just a question of quality > quantity.

ElCasual said:
Jim Ryan and Hermen Hulst are joke, they need to be fired. Looks like they dont know how to manage the brand.
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Oh I'm sorry did they release a 55 MC game last week after a quarter with hardware sales down by 30%?

C'mon man, don't say ridiculous stuff unless you're ready for the truth to slap you like Rick James.
 
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I love games but I would never want to work in the industry. It is super cut throat, especially for studio start ups. I hope everybody is able to get back on their feet who lost their jobs.

From Sony's perspective, especially with GAAS games, it's probably easier to cancel these projects earlier than others. GAAS games need to have a good enough foundation to last 8-10 years. They want to compete with Fortnite, COD, and Apex Legends. Cut the rip cord now rather than waste resources by releasing a game that can't compete with other top tier GAAS games
 
Oddvintagechap said:
Crazy cause these games been in development for years, Sony didn't even release CGI trailers.
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That trend of CGI trailers a year or more before actual reveal of a game seems to be a dying approach? The current tactics seems to be is to stay secret until he game is ready for a press cycle and then do a teaser shortly before a trailer followed by a ton of breakdown pieces of little bits of the game or character reveals. You don't see many of those "In a world... *INSERT LOGO" trailers from mainstream developers or publishers these days. (Contraband is the last unknown-brand teaser reveal I can think of, I'm sure there are others, but by my count its not as common as in previous gens.)

The exception would be major franchise announcements, which may have a variety of reasons for them like partnership agreements or FY planning beyond just the boost a company gets from that awareness. (The other exception would be console launches, but given how much baggage Xbox has been saddled with since showing off all of those game teasers it has yet to come back to in 2-3 years, there's probably some takeaways about that history in Microsoft's future.)

Personally I wouldn't say it's a positive or negative indicator when we haven't had any teases about a project known to be in development? It's just the way marketing works these days. Games either get shown when it's good business to show them, or they die on the vine and we never get to know a thing about them unless somebody pockets some materials from the office before being shown the door.
 
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Deviation:

"We will create the best Shooter, it will be the most Innovative Shooter"

Thanks to Sony and it'll be exclusive to PlayStation.

3 years later..?
 
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Whoa shit, apparently it was more than half of the studio, the project is likely cancelled and these people were made redundant.
Dick Jones said:
Terrible news for devs. I hope they land on their feet somewhere. Sony haven't taken this crowd over, have they? Of not, it's a coincidence with the PixelOpus death
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Didn't they drop out the Final Strike Games project that also led to layoffs like less than a week ago? Didn't Shu said in an interview weeks ago that there are projects with no public announcement that are cancelled? Either its a grim coincidence or what was about to happen.
 
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90 people is a whole team.

Damn, thats some heavy downsizing.....how big were they before?
 
I legit thought they were already a Playstation studio and got that blank check to produce greatness, but looks like either the game is straight cancelled, being downscaled or they will be brought in as a support studio now that the fat as been trimmed off.

They simped a little too hard.
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fermcr said:
Completely clueless that you simply don't get it... 🤷‍♂️
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Sony isn't a Trillion dollar company with the means to spend $76 billion to buy a publisher. Even though Microsoft may be weak in terms of their game division that isn't the same for the rest of the company. Microsoft also as a whole are still bleeding employees beyond the 10,000 that were initially laid off in January. Today alone another 158 were being cut with no raises throughout the company.
 
fermcr said:
Guess it's only bad when Microsoft lay off workers.
It's fine when Sony closes down studios, cancel games or lay off workers...

Best of luck to the people laid off.
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Context matters. One company is producing while the other isn't so of course it's not gonna be perceived as negatively.
 
Black_Stride said:
I legit thought they were already a Playstation studio and got that blank check to produce greatness, but looks like either the game is straight cancelled, being downscaled or they will be brought in as a support studio now that the fat as been trimmed off.

They simped a little too hard.
deviation-games-3.jpg



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this is really sad. maybe 90 employees isn't that many?
 
Apparently Final Strike Games was brought in as a supporting studio to help on the same sci-fi shooter game that Deviation Games was working on, at least according to this reddit user:
 
Seems like Sony made a global revaluation of the games in development earlier this year, some people were given the ok or even got acquired in the process like Firewalk, others were not delivering as expected and got the hammer.
We'll see if the game is still alive.
 
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fermcr said:
Guess it's only bad when Microsoft lay off workers.
It's fine when Sony closes down studios, cancel games or lay off workers...

Best of luck to the people laid off.
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Sony are given the benefit of the doubt in these scenarios because they have been putting out banger AAA GOTY contenders one after another for years now. If they decide to cancel a certain project or shutdown a game studio, we can trust them that it is for the best, as that particular team was delivering underwhelming results.

On the other hand you have Microsoft, who has been mismanaging their first-party studios for over 10 years now with no tangible improvements to their lineup of exclusives, even after having acquired an entire publisher. So excuse me for thinking that the layoffs, shakeups or cancellations that take place over at Microsoft are all a result of their incompetence.
 
thicc_girls_are_teh_best said:
Also, it seems some of the games they were funding in that regard were maybe too similar. Do you really need a scifi-military shooter from Deviation if Bungie are probably going to make something in that style with their next game, and Destiny 2 already covers that fix from a different angle? And that's on top of Firesprite's game, which is yet another FPS probably also scifi-military themed.
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Firesprite's action shooter was canned about a year ago. Their current projects seem to only be the dark narrative adventure game and Twisted Metal.
 
Hope the effected land on their feet. Losing a job is never fun and I wouldn't wish that on anyone.
 
Perrott said:
Sony are given the benefit of the doubt in these scenarios because they have been putting out banger AAA GOTY contenders one after another for years now. If they decide to cancel a certain project or shutdown a game studio, we can trust them that it is for the best, as that particular team was delivering underwhelming results.

On the other hand you have Microsoft, who has been mismanaging their first-party studios for over 10 years now with no tangible improvements to their lineup of exclusives, even after having acquired an entire publisher. So excuse me for thinking that the layoffs, shakeups or cancellations that take place over at Microsoft are all a result of their incompetence.
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Yep, you're absolutely right. Since Sony's releasing "banger AAA GOTY contenders", they are justifiably excused to lay off who ever they want. Only developers that release subpar games, they aren't excused to lay off (likely incompetent) people. /s

Great logic you have there.
 
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I wonder how many of the 400 live service games they have in development are going to end up coming out.
Thirty7ven said:
You guys think this is Sony knowing EC is blocking ABK and they don't need a COD like shooter anymore?
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No, the games were probably just looking bad and they dont want to invest in it anymore, standard practice for vidya.
 
you know i was wondering, if this studio is closing down soon, yet Sony acquired other studio like firewalk /fire sprite, perhaps the upcoming games from them could be very good?

I think its safe to say that, its better to spend more to acquire existing publisher/ game studios, than opening new studio with these "ex" devs, WAY too risky.
 
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90 people! That's most of the studio. Either Sony cancelled the project with them or they have to go back to the drawing board to unlock more funding. Tough position, if Sony cancelled the project, their other option is to see if another publisher will pick-up/fund the project.

Elios83 said:
Seems like Sony made a global revaluation of the games in development earlier this year, some people were given the ok or even got acquired in the process like Firewalk, others were not delivering as expected and got the hammer.
We'll see if the game is still alive.
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Sony commited to investing significantly into their 1st party studios ($300M/year expansion) but also cited 1st party costs as a reason for the decline in net income this FY. So they're cutting projects that aren't going to make it, including 2nd party games.
 
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ElCasual said:
Jim Ryan and Hermen Hulst are joke, they need to be fired. Looks like they dont know how to manage the brand.
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Jim and Herman should join at least the "planning - pre-production" meetings for every game studio working with Playstation.
Perhaps Jim and Herman always wanted to make their own game.

They should involved in production and QA testing as well to ensure that Playstation seal of quality.
 
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fermcr said:
Guess it's only bad when Microsoft lay off workers.
It's fine when Sony closes down studios, cancel games or lay off workers...

Best of luck to the people laid off.
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Sony didn't do any layoffs. They don't own Deviation. Deviation is an independent company. Sony and Deviation have a publisher agreement. That's it.
 
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