Evolution: It Was a Very Amicable Parting of Ways With Sony; PS4 a Key Strategy Part Going Forward

As reported earlier today, the development team formerly known as Evolution Studios and responsible for Driveclub has joined Codemasters, with the goal of creating a brand new IP.

That’s just a couple weeks after Sony announced the closure of the studio. The team still needs to pick a new name, but for now we’ll refer to them as Evolution still.

Co-Founder Mick Hocking, which will now take the role of VP of Product Development at Codemasters to oversee all the internal studios, talked to GamesIndustry about this deal and their parting with Sony: apparently it was a happy one, with PlayStation 4 still very much at the center of their strategy.

Once we realised that the decision had been made to close the studio, that Sony didn’t want to go forward with Evolution, there was an amazing opportunity for me and Frank to come together and do a deal. I think Sony were really happy that we get to go forward. Obviously, we’re going to be making PS4 content, so they’re happy about getting more great content for the PlayStation going forward. It works for everyone, it’s a really good news story.

We’ve always had a great relationship with Sony and it’s been a real privilege to be involved in the development of tech and new platforms with them. We worked on some great IP together and it’s been a very amicable parting of ways. We’ve still got a great relationship and PS4 is definitely going to be a key part of our strategy going forward, so we’ll be maintaining those relationships. So I think it’s all been handled really well, by both companies. It’s very positive. We’re very happy to be able to go forward and work on multiple platforms and work on new IP here. Sony will still be getting the output from our studio, certainly for our next game, which we hope will be really successful on PS4.