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PlayStation insider Colin Moriarty claims to have heard that the PS5 exclusive in development at Deviation Games has indeed been canceled. The writing has been on the wall for quite a while, but this is the first time we’ve heard from an insider that rumors of the project being in trouble weren’t unfounded.
What happened to Deviation Games PS5 exclusive?
On episode 255 of his Sacred Symbols podcast, Moriarty says that he first heard from a source about impending layoffs at Deviation Games weeks before they were confirmed, and the same source also told him that the mystery PS5 game was canceled. With his source’s claim about layoffs turning out to be true, Moriarty seems confident that the latter part of their information is also correct.
You can hear Moriarty’s comments at the 2:45:55 mark below (thanks, Reddit):
If true, Moriarty’s report is hardly surprising. Sony announced its partnership with Deviation Games — founded by former Call of Duty developers and industry veterans — back in June 2021. Since then, we haven’t officially heard or seen anything. In September 2022, co-founder Jason Blundell departed the studio.
Earlier this month, Final Strike Games — rumored to be supporting Deviation’s PS5 project — announced a significant number of layoffs, following which Deviation itself laid off a large number of employees.
Suffice to say, this doesn’t bode well for a project that has never been revealed.
In the absence of an official statement, it’s hard to say what happened behind the scenes. However, Sony did confirm that it has been re-evaluating its strategic objectives, as part of which it shut down Pixelopus. It’s possible that Deviation’s PS5 exclusive landed on the chopping block during the same exercise.