Devolver co-founder Mike Wilson has publicly distanced himself from DeepWell DTx, a game publisher and developer he co-founded in 2022 to explore medically therapeutic games, Game Developer reports. In a recent LinkedIn post, Wilson says that he had nothing to do with the game DeepWell just released, claiming other developers had also asked to have their names removed from the project.
“I feel compelled today to let my industry friends know that I left DeepWell late 2023, along with almost all of the games industry colleagues I brought to that company,” Wilson said on LinkedIn. “[I] have absolutely nothing to do with the game they released today on the Quest store (which they called Zengeance) and which my colleagues also asked to have their names removed from.”
DeepWell’s debut game Zengence (which was misspelled in Wilson’s post) was released last week on the Meta Quest store. The game uses breathwork as input, with players required to hum into the microphone to master the action title. “Zengence isn’t your typical meditation or fitness game,” the description reads. “This is positive mental health at full throttle.”
It’s unclear why Wilson has decided to distance himself from the company following Zengence’s release, and thus far none of the colleagues mentioned in his post have added their own perspectives. “I still have high hopes and strong beliefs for the power of games and other digital media to benefit people, but could not see a path to getting it done in that company,” Wilson concludes in his post.
Elsewhere on his LinkedIn, Wilson’s work history gives a little more detail on his departure from DeepWell. “I left the company in January 2024 to renew my focus on creating beneficial content, while DeepWell focuses on getting its proprietary IP and SDK approved by the FDA and into the hands of interested developer and publisher partners worldwide,” the entry states.
According to his LinkedIn, Wilson is still actively involved with Medicinal Media, a project he started during his time at DeepWell that aims to explore the use of digital media to support mental health.
