When Sony announced the closure of Dark Outlaw Games earlier this week, many in the gaming community assumed the studio had fallen victim to the same fate as other PlayStation-owned teams working on live-service projects. However, former developers from the studio have now revealed that the cancelled game was something entirely different — and they believe players would have loved it.
The details emerged during a Twitch stream on March 25, where former junior game designer JCbackfire sat down with studio head Jason Blundell, a veteran best known for his work on the Call of Duty franchise at Activision. While both were careful not to breach confidentiality agreements, they made it clear that the project in development was not a live-service game. JCbackfire said he was personally thrilled to be working on something “focused,” describing it as the kind of project he genuinely wanted to make.
Blundell, who founded Dark Outlaw Games barely a year before its closure, expressed deep disappointment but remained philosophical about the situation. He described his former colleagues as “top-class professionals” and said the team had been building “a hell of a game.” When pressed on the genre, Blundell offered a cryptic hint, suggesting that the type of gamer curious enough to ask that question would likely have been the target audience — fueling speculation that the project may have been a first-person shooter, possibly with horror elements given his background creating Call of Duty’s beloved Zombies mode.
Neither developer placed blame on Sony for the decision. Instead, as Eurogamer reported, they attributed the closure to a difficult business climate and shifting priorities within the industry. “Times change, focus changes,” Blundell said, before quipping with bittersweet humor: “The best game is the one you never play.”
The shutdown of Dark Outlaw adds to a growing list of first-party studio closures under Sony’s umbrella in recent years. Firewalk Studios was dissolved in 2024 following the disastrous launch of its live-service shooter Concord, which was pulled offline just two weeks after release. More recently, Bluepoint Games — the acclaimed studio behind the Demon’s Souls remake — was also shuttered. Sony’s broader retreat from its ambitious live-service strategy has left many questioning the company’s direction when it comes to nurturing new development talent.
For JCbackfire, who spent five years working on projects that never saw the light of day across both Dark Outlaw and Blundell’s previous studio Deviation, the loss is deeply personal. He described the team dynamic as the thing he would miss most, saying he would “do anything to get that back.” Blundell, ever the optimist, gently reminded him that the team is still alive and the phone still works — leaving open the possibility that this group of developers may yet reunite to finish what they started.