Gaming “We Were Making a Hell of a Game”: Dark Outlaws Games Boss Says Players Would’ve Been “Very Excited” to Play Its Non-Live Service Game David Carcasole • at EDT Add on Google Dark Outlaw Games studio head says players would have been "very excited" to play the defunct studio's now-cancelled project. Yesterday, we learned that Sony and PlayStation had shut down yet another studio it had previously founded and added to the PlayStation Studios family. Dark Outlaw Games was founded by PlayStation in March 2025, and almost exactly a year later, PlayStation shut down Dark Outlaw Games, long before the studio had a chance to get its debut project out the door. Which, according to Dark Outlaw Games studio head Jason Blundell, a former Call of Duty developer who was one of the key developers behind the first four Black Ops games, would have been "a hell of a game," and players would have been "very excited" to get their hands on it. Related Story Bungie Adjusts Marathon’s Ranked and Cryo Archive Schedules So Players Don’t Have to Pick Just OneFirst reported by Kotaku, those come from Blundell, while appearing on a livestream with JCbackfire, who was a level designer at Dark Outlaw Games and, like Blundell, is now unemployed. The two talked about the shutdown without breaking their confidentiality agreements, which made them stop short of saying exactly what they were working on, but it's clear they believed they were making something that would've been appreciated by fans. Especially because, as JCbackfire points out, the game they were making was not a live service game. "I loved the type of project we were working on," he says. "It wasn't a live service game, which, personally, I was really stoked about...just something that I really wanted to make. I wish I could talk more about it." Ultimately, neither seemed to hold a grudge towards Sony, and that, more than anything, they miss being able to work on the project they had, with the people and the team dynamic they had. Blundell also made the point that this was not something they could have really seen coming. This decision, as they see it, didn't come down to a loss of faith in the studio's talents and abilities, but Sony deciding it no longer wanted to go down this path with Dark Outlaw Games. "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," Blundell said. "The best game is the one you've never played." PlayStation simply changing direction also lines up with the reasoning given in the only official statement we've seen the company make on the matter. The official statement said that Sony made "several strategic adjustments to support long-term stability." It's unfortunate that we're not even halfway through the year, and we've already seen thousands of video game developers get laid off, either through entire studio shutdowns and/or mass cuts across a major corporation. Dark Outlaw was the second studio under the PlayStation Studios banner to get shuttered this year after Bluepoint. Hopefully, in the case of the team from Dark Outlaw, if all of those impacted feel as Blundell and JCbackfire do, that the team worked wonderfully together, we can see them come together for a fresh start elsewhere. Follow on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds. Further Reading Lords of the Fallen (2023) Will Headline the PS Plus Essential Games for April 2026, New Report Reveals ‘Are Those People Going to See a Difference?’: PlayStation 6 May Have A Significant Upgrade Problem, Alderon Games Founder Says Marathon Estimated to Have Hit 1.2M Copies Sold Across All Platforms, Mostly on Steam Dark Outlaw Games, the PS Studios Team Led by COD Zombies Vet Jason Blundell Has Reportedly Been Shut Down [Update] Read all on “We Were Making a Hell of a Game”: Dark Outlaws Games Boss Says Players Would’ve Been “Very Excited” to Play Its Non-Live Service Game
