Former Call Of Duty Devs Explain Why They Started New Studio Deviation Games With Sony

There's been a running theme this year of new video game studios being formed by industry veterans and then announcing that they've signed with Sony to help develop their first game. Deviation Games, which was formed by Call of Duty: Black Ops leaders Dave Anthony and Jason Blundell, is the latest studio to make this deal with Sony, which signed Jade Raymond's Haven Entertainment in March and Firewalk Studios in April.

Revealed at Summer Game Fest, Anthony and Blundell said that aligning with Sony was the obvious choice to make when they looked at the company's track record while they were searching for a partner.

"The funny thing was, it was actually a pretty shortlist. And Sony made it easy for us." Anthony said to GamesIndustry.Biz. "Now we;re part of the process of working with them and we can see how they operate. What they do is promote a culture and an environment where it's fearless to create. And the way they do that is with mutual transparency with the teams. It's absolutely mind-blowing. For us, we have never been in a situation like this before, where we've got everything we could possibly ask for."

Anthony added that the financial security of teaming up with Sony allowed Deviation Games to forge its own path and create a healthy workplace environment. Having an experienced game developer such as Herman Hulst as head of PlayStation Worldwide Studios and access to Sony's resources also helped seal the deal, as Blundell added that Sony knows "how to deal with imagination and how to embrace risk and how to manage it."

Deviation Games currently has more than 100 employees--or Deviators as they're referred to--working on the first game from the studio. While Blundell and Anthony weren't ready to reveal what they were working on, the pair did promise a "groundbreaking IP with innovation at its core."