New studio helmed – ironically – by Call of Duty alumni Deviation Games is expanding at a rapid rate as work begins in earnest on its debut project, which will be published under the PlayStation Studios umbrella. Such is the speed of its growth, in fact, that it’s already opened a second office to complement its Los Angeles base: Deviation Games Canada.
The tidbit was shared on LinkedIn and spotted by ResetEra, and naturally the studio has triggered another round of recruitment while it looks to beef up its Canadian team. It’s still unclear what the developer is working on, although in a New Year update former Treyarch chief and company founder Jason Blundell expressed his desire to avoid “the normal, the boring, the humdrum”.
There was a job listing that got posted on a number of sites earlier this week which was misreported, suggesting that Deviation Games was making an RPG. Digging deeper into it, the company merely said that it’s looking for employees with experience on RPGs, as well as online shooters. Perhaps the team’s cooking some kind of alternative to Borderlands, maybe?
[source linkedin.com, via resetera.com]
Comments 32
Possible PlayStation Call of Duty competitor in the making?
Let Microsoft have the USA. Sony will take over Canada.
@mrtennis1990 Worth noting this game was signed long before anything with Activision Blizzard occurred.
@get2sammyb very good point
It's 'titbit' Sammy. We aren't prudish about boobs like the Americans and can say tit without getting flustered 😆
A co-op shooter eh? Tricky thing to get right but if its going to be a 1st party game I'm interested as that should mean there won't be any battle pass or such nonsense attached.
Never really been a 1st Person `shooter kinda guy, particularly not of multiplayer 1st Person shooters… but it just so happens that Sony really needs one right now, so hopefully they’ll be able to evolve the genre a little now that they’re out from under Acti-Blizz’s oversight.
@Bismarck I'm afraid MS will eat EA too and with it few Canadian studios!
@Integrity It's literally either spelling. Until your comment, I never in my life saw it spelled that way.
@MFTWrecks titbit is how we commonly spell it in England, tidbit in North America. It almost non-existant to see Americans use English spelling in their prose so I'm not surprised you've never seen it. Your culture is much more pervasive here than visa-versa
Naturally you'd be understood either way 😁
@get2sammyb Am I right in thinking that this team, Firewalk, Guerrilla and Firesprite are all now rumoured to be working on some kind of FPS title at this point? Almost seems like the Activision deal has been on Sony's radar for some time... or they recognised the lack of a first/second party killer FPS and are trying to fix that as a happy coincidence.
@Marquez I think they just want more multiplayer games to be honest. They probably knew about the Activision situation before we did, but if we're to believe Phil Spencer then those discussions only started at the end of last year anyway.
@get2sammyb That's one rapid $70bn deal in that case!
It'll be interesting to see Sony walk the line between quality of games produced and quantity of MTX that multiplayer seems to bring these days.
Particularly excited about Firewalk because of the Bungie alumni (Newsk, Hamrick, Claude) - I think that's the sleeper hit to keep an eye on.
This so just a partnership on one game right? So who wants to start placing bets that if their game is a massive hit, Microsoft buys them a couple years later
Playstation losing CoD could finally give some new shooter IPs a chance like what Deviation are making, also the other studio Sony partnered with Firewalk.
A bunch of Respawn devs have left Apex recently too and joined a new company, excited to see what comes of that.
if sony was smart they should purchase these studios imo.
@NB-DanTE nah i don't see ea selling any time soon. not to mention the rumors of ms buying ea have been around like at least 15+ years.
I was thinking RPG as well, but yeah when you consider the people who are at that studio it sounds more along the lines of something like Destiny or Borderlands 🤔 Or in that ball park at least.
I'm not a fan of acquisitions, especially not on the scale megacorporations like Microsoft do them, but Sony needs to start securing their future by having more content and that means owning more studios. Partners won't cut it. Buy Deviation Games and everyone else they can.
@TheCollector316 Sony own 20 studios and they are far more prolific than MS'. MS own 24 now they've bought Bethesda and Activision, though Activision won't be doing anything exclusive for a while. Sony don't need to rush into anything, historically they know how to best run their studios compared to MS. Also Sony hasn't been slack as of late getting longstanding partners under their umbrella so I'm sure they have a strategy in place for any future acquisitions don't worry 😊
Nice! So much tech investment happening in Canada these days. You just love to see it.
@Integrity
After Activision, Microsoft has 33+ studios and so many IPs. Let's not forget they snatched up all those IPs and studios from Bethesda. We haven't seen the effects of that yet, but all these big moves are unquestionably bolstering Microsoft while weakening Sony.
@TheCollector316 I was counting Bethesda Studios and Activision as one each as I didn't have a clue how many there are individually and I don't expect them all to survive 😁👍 cheers though.
Sony builds studios while Microsoft buys them.
@get2sammyb
Exactly, Sony knew this longs before we did.
And Spencer's word isn't to be trusted. He wouldn't keep his job for long as Mr. Truman 😉.
@Shepherd_Tallon
RPG-Shooter? Like Fallout.. This wouldn't be farfetched and seems pretty likely. I watched the video they released and they seem intended to bring something new to the table. The RPG-shooter genre has lots of room to revolutionize.
@Aexurion No not at all. A traditional RPG was just my first thought when I read the listing. But games like Destiny and Borderlands also have character progression similar to RPGs.
They've said they don't want to make the same old same old, so who knows what this might be.
But no I wasn't thinking Fallout.
@Shepherd_Tallon
I knew you weren't thinking Fallout as you stated Destiny and Borderlands. Fallout was my guess as RPG-shooter, of course with their own unique spin on it. Destiny is a typical shooter so I don't think it's going to resemble it. Borderlands is ARPG-shooter so could easily be similar.
Obviously, it's anyone's guess what the game ends up being, so my Fallout hunch could be totally wrong.
The market is starting to consolidate with Microsoft and Tencent at the helm.
Sony can't afford big players, but if they wanted to they could easily get Capcom or Square. The question is would they? Or will they wait for Microsoft and Tencent to swallow up more studios first?
A side note, THQ Nordic has been eating small studios for a while now as well.
@Aexurion Ah apologies! I read that completely wrong in the middle of the night.
My bad.
My imagination is running away with me now tbh. I've never played a competitive FPS that I enjoyed outside of the campaign (not since Goldeneye), so it'd be cool if they do something that pulls me in in that regard.
They've already said that they don't want to return to the usual hum drum, and in the last few years Sony tend to let their studios/partners reinvent things (GoW, Returnal), so I'm hopeful.
Something like how The Division handles PvP might be cool.
Really interested to see what they make. Microsoft gobbling up Activision -guarantees the same ol games really cod etc. Would have been nice to see Microsoft invest all that cash into opening new studios & allowing them proper freedom to make games. This deal & the others Sony have made really intrigue me.
"Perhaps the team’s cooking some kind of alternative to Borderlands, maybe?"
I hope not, honestly. Borderlands' formula is outdated and I think players deserves something new. Look at how Outriders performed. Far from what is expected from a game being developed in partnership with PlayStation.
Because Outriders was blah?
@Shepherd_Tallon
Shooters aren't my cup of tea either. GTA, Uncharted and even Far Cry are games I enjoy but I stay far away from Destiny or CoDs. 😂
I tried to enjoy them but they just don't suit me.
That said, I'm not that interested what they come up with but wish them the best releasing something that sells well.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...