Former Sony executive Shawn Layden has told Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier that he has “no idea” what happened to Capcom’s PlayStation 4-exclusive, Deep Down.
Schreier interviewed Layden over a video call for a newsletter in which the PlayStation veteran talked about his departure from Sony and reiterated that he thinks AAA development, as we know it, is unsustainable. When Schreier quizzed him about Deep Down, Layden paused to “think for a second” before responding with, “I have no idea.”
One thing I didn’t include in the newsletter — I asked him what happened to the PS4 exclusive Deep Down (which was announced in 2013, then vanished). He had to think for a second, then responded: “I have no idea.”
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) September 3, 2021
Even if Layden does know what went down, it’s unlikely that he will discuss the matter. But we can at least strike him off from the list of people who would have an answer.
Deep Down is (or was) a dungeon crawler with gameplay inspired by Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma and Dark Souls series. It was announced in 2013 before disappearing, much like Rockstar Games’ PS3-exclusive, Agent. Reassurances that Deep Down was still in development were made every now and then, but it became clear by 2016 that development was in trouble.
After a period of silence, which saw Capcom renew Deep Down‘s trademark, producer Yoshinori Ono told fans that the publisher hasn’t given up on the game. Ono subsequently left Capcom after two decades at the company.
The last time we heard about Deep Down was in April 2020 in a report from Video Games Chronicles, whose sources claimed that the game was “near-complete” before it was shelved.
