PlayStation Shuts Down Dark Outlaw Games Less Than A Year After Launch
Sony Interactive Entertainment has closed Dark Outlaw Games, a PlayStation first-party studio led by longtime Call of Duty developer Jason Blundell, less than a year after it began operating. The shutdown is part of layoffs across PlayStation that affect about 50 employees, including staff working on mobile development.
Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier first reported the closure on March 24, 2026. In a post on Bluesky, Schreier wrote that “PlayStation is closing Dark Outlaw Games, a studio formed last year by former Call of Duty lead Jason Blundell.” He added that the company is “also making other cuts including in mobile development. Around 50 people laid off.”
Dark Outlaw Games had been operating for fewer than 12 months. The studio was founded in 2025 under Sony’s PlayStation Studios organization and was led by Blundell, who spent more than a decade working on the Call of Duty franchise.
Blundell worked at Treyarch for 13 years, where he helped create and develop the Call of Duty Zombies mode. His work at the studio included Call of Duty 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. He later directed Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, released in 2015, and contributed to Black Ops 4.
Before joining Treyarch, Blundell worked as a programmer and producer at Activision. During his time with Treyarch he became widely associated with the Zombies mode that became one of the franchise’s most popular features.
Sony established Dark Outlaw Games in 2025. At the time, Blundell described the opportunity to build a new PlayStation studio as unusual within Sony’s structure. “Sony doesn’t set up first-party studios all the time. To have that privilege is humbling, it’s really nice. I’m really excited,” he said.
Blundell also said the team had already been “working away in the shadows for a while.” The existence of Dark Outlaw Games became public when Blundell mentioned it during a podcast appearance in March of last year, after the project had circulated in rumors earlier.
The studio had not publicly announced the game it was developing. Job listings described the project as “the next groundbreaking AAA original IP,” and the title itself was identified as a “AAA console title.” Recruitment materials described the studio’s development approach as “lean and highly efficient.”
One job listing for a senior concept artist drew attention because it required candidates with “advanced expertise in using generative AI tools such as Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, ChatGPT, or similar platforms” to assist with conceptual work on the project.
Dark Outlaw Games was based in Los Angeles. The exact number of employees working at the studio has not been publicly confirmed. The studio’s LinkedIn page listed its workforce as between 11 and 50 employees.
Several members of the team previously worked at Deviation Games, another studio connected to Blundell. Deviation Games was founded in June 2021 by Blundell and Treyarch veteran Dave Anthony. The independent developer had partnered with Sony to create a new PlayStation title.
Blundell left Deviation Games in 2022. The studio conducted layoffs in 2023 and closed in 2024 before revealing the project it had been developing. Dark Outlaw Games was formed months later as a new PlayStation first-party studio led by Blundell.
The shutdown means the Dark Outlaw project will not be released. Information about the game remained limited while it was in development.
Sony confirmed internal changes in a statement shared with media outlets, but did not provide details on how many positions were eliminated.
“SIE’s Studio Business Group has made several strategic adjustments to support long-term sustainability,” a Sony Interactive Entertainment spokesperson said. “As part of this process, there were limited workforce reductions across select teams. We greatly appreciate the contributions of all those impacted.”
The layoffs extend beyond Dark Outlaw Games. Schreier reported that roughly 50 jobs were eliminated across PlayStation divisions, including positions tied to mobile development. Discussion on the ResetEra forum had previously suggested that Sony was scaling back mobile development outside of “a few select high-impact projects.”
The closure is the second PlayStation Studios shutdown in two months. Sony closed Bluepoint Games in February 2026. The studio was known for remakes, including Demon’s Souls and Shadow of the Colossus.
According to Bloomberg, Bluepoint had attempted to pitch several new projects before the closure. Those ideas included a Bloodborne remake and a Ghost of Tsushima spinoff.
Bluepoint had also been working on a live-service God of War project that Sony canceled in 2025.
Other studio closures have taken place in recent years as Sony adjusted its plans for online multiplayer titles. Firewalk Studios, the developer of the multiplayer shooter Concord, shut down in October 2024 after the game failed commercially. In December 2023, Naughty Dog stopped development of a standalone multiplayer version of The Last of Us.
Despite those cancellations, several online titles connected to PlayStation remain in development. Two Horizon Zero Dawn spin-offs are in progress, including a cooperative project from Guerrilla Games and a massively multiplayer online game being developed by NCSoft.
Other active projects include Fairgame$, which continues development even after the departure of Haven Studios head Jade Raymond, Arrowhead Game Studios’ Helldivers 2, Bungie’s Destiny 2 and Marathon, and Gran Turismo 7.
