Former Call of Duty developer Jason Blundell’s new studio with Sony, Dark Outlaw Games, was shuttered this week, and now more details about the team and its game have been revealed.
Blundell and the game’s level designer JC Farmer discussed the project on a livestream. To begin with, Blundell said it “f**king sucks” that the 20-person studio got shut down, but he said he understands these things happen when you work for a big company like Sony.
He also stressed that it’s common for games to be canceled earlier in development. He said Dark Outlaw may have gotten more attention in this regard because the studio was owned by Sony.
“Are we disappointed? Yeah. I mean we’re laughing and we’re joking [on the stream] but you’re depressed, you’re sad, and you’re going to mourn what could have been, because we were making a hell of a game,” Blundell said, as reported by VGC.
The developer went on to say that prior to Sony’s decision to close Dark Outlaw, things were “glowing” and it was his perception that “what we were doing was all good.”
However, “[Sony is] a big company, decisions have to be made, and I totally respect that. ‘It hurts a little bit because you’re like, ‘Argh, it’s dead,’ but you know,” he said.
For his part, Farmer said he feels Dark Outlaw was closed due to “industry stuff” and not due to the quality of what Dark Outlaw was making. He could be referencing many different things here. Experts have said the AAA game business is unsustainable due to ballooning budgets and other factors. Just recently, reporter Jason Schreier said AAA game projects can cost $300 million or more to produce, with the majority of budgets going to developer salaries and overhead costs.
To be sure, we do not know the budget of Dark Outlaw’s game, and with only 20 people working on it, that wouldn’t seemingly fit the bill of a large-scale AAA production. It’s also unclear how early in development the Dark Outlaw project was. The team was formed in 2025 as an incubation studio.
Blundell added that he understands that “times change” and “focus changes” for a company like Sony, and there can be casualties as a result. “But the project we were doing, what we were doing, I think fans would have been very excited. The best game is the one you never played, unfortunately,” he said.
The Dark Outlaw project was not a live-service game, but Blundell could not share any more details. It was just the latest setback for Blundell with Sony, as his previous team, Deviation Games, was partnered with Sony for an exclusive before getting shuttered in 2024.
An SIE spokesperson said the closure of Dark Outlaw, and other cuts to the PlayStation team, came in an effort “to support long-term sustainability.”
“Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Studio Business Group has made several strategic adjustments to support long-term sustainability,” the SIE spokesperson said. “As part of this process, there were limited workforce reductions across select teams. We greatly appreciate the contributions of all those impacted.”
In 2025, Blundell said it was “such a privilege” to start a new studio with PlayStation. “Sony doesn’t start up first-party studios all the time, so to have that privilege is humbling,” he said. Also at the time, Blundell said the team had been working “in the shadows” for some time. The studio’s game was never revealed, however.
A since-deleted job ad for Dark Outlaw seen by GameSpot said the studio was aiming to make “the next groundbreaking AAA original IP” as part of a “lean and highly efficient” development setup.
The closure of Dark Outlaw comes not long after Sony closed Bluepoint, a studio known for consistently great remakes.
