“You’re gonna mourn what could have been because we were making a hell of a game,” Blundell said. While he clearly noted that he didn’t bear any ill will towards Sony, and went as far as to refer to the company as having been a great partner, he went on to say that “it f****** sucked.” However, he wasn’t able to reveal any more details about the event. “We have to respect confidentiality so we can’t go into every gory detail,” he said.

Blundell went on to note that the decision to shut down Dark Outlaw Games largely came about due to changing times. He still can’t help but express sadness over what could have been with the studio’s project. “I can reassure you—and it’s been reassured to me—it’s just times change, focus changes, but the project we were doing and what we were doing, fans would have been very excited,” he said.

JCbackfire expressed a similar kind of sadness, noting that in his five years of having worked in the game development industry, none of his work will be seen by players. However, the two are still optimistic about the future. “The sentiment is definitely we’re down but not out,” he said.

Reports indicating that Sony is shutting down Dark Outlaw Games earlier this week, courtesy of Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier. In a social media post, he said that alongside the studio’s closure, Sony was also making cuts in mobile game development. This has seemingly impacted “around” 50 people.

Schreier also indicated that Sony’s focus moving forward will be on a “few select high-impact projects,” while the company continued to support projects like MLB The Show Mobile and Ratchet and Clank: Ranger Rumble.

Dark Outlaw Games was unveiled in March 2025. Founded by Jason Blundell – a veteran developer who had previously worked at Treyarch on the Call of Duty: Black Ops franchise and considered one of the masterminds behind Call of Duty Zombies – Dark Outlaw Games was going to be a first-party PlayStation studio. Considering the pedigree, it was likely focused on developing shooters.

While the studio had only been announced this time last year, work had apparently already been going on in secret. Speaking to Giant Bomb co-founder Jeff Gerstmann on his Bonus Podcast, Blundell said that the team had been “working away in the shadows for a while,” before the studio was officially unveiled. At the time, he said that the studio was still growing, and that more details would be revealed about its projects “when we’ve got something to talk about.”

It is worth noting that Blundell had previously co-founded another studio that was working with PlayStation – Deviation Games back in 2021. However, Blundell left the studio in 2022, with Deviation Games itself being shut down in 2024 without having released any games.

Unfortunately, that’s not all. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier notes that cuts are incoming for mobile development, with “around” 50 employees laid off. A Resetera member posted about all this and claimed that previously announced titles, including MLB The Show Mobile, Ratchet and Clank: Ranger Rumble, and more, would still be supported. However, the company is seemingly focused on a “few select high-impact projects.”

While they didn’t cite a source, Schreier chimed in on that thread to simply reply, “Yep.”

Of course, all of this coincides with PlayStation allegedly ending its release of first-party single-player games on PC, including Ghost of Yōtei. It’s expected to be formally announced during an investor call, although Housemarque may also confirm this if asked whether Saros is coming to PC. Either way, Sony is seemingly taking a conservative approach, even if it’s not giving up the live service approach entirely, as seen with Horizon Hunters Gathering and the continued existence of Fairgame$.

Blundell formally announced the studio while appearing on a recent episode of journalist Jeff Gerstmann’s Bonus Podcast, confirming that the team has been “working away in the shadows for a while.”

He says the studio is currently in the process of recruiting and has been at it “for a little bit of time now.” As for when fans can expect concrete details on the game that it is working on, he said, “When we’ve got something to talk about, we’ll step out into the light.”

This isn’t the first time Blundell has attempted to collaborate with PlayStation in recent years. In 2021, it was announced that he co-founded indie AAA studio Deviation Games, partnering with PlayStation to develop an exclusive live service IP. By September 2022, however, Blundell had left the studio, while in 2024, Deviation Games was officially shut down.

A couple of months later, reports emerged that PlayStation had established a new first-party studio with Jason Blundell and other former Deviation Games staff and work was underway on a new IP.