*Dark Outlaw* Shuts Down After No Projects in Nearly 5 Years — Sony Was Really Ruthless This Time

A very clean cut.

Sony’s move against Dark Outlaw this time was basically the standard “the wind-up was long enough, time to end the move.” First, players on forums broke the news, saying PlayStation had shut down first-party partner studio Dark Outlaw Games. Then Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier stepped in to confirm it, locking the story in. With a source at that level, the verdict is solid.

The issue is that this team’s lineup actually wasn’t bad. Dark Outlaw Games was built by several Call of Duty veterans, with Jason Blundell and Dave Anthony on the roster. Many members also came from Deviation Games. In other words, Sony didn’t just throw together some random team—it gave them resources and gave them time.

But what was the result? In nearly 5 years, no public project. Not a single one.

That’s rough. For players, a studio is judged first by its games. For a platform holder, it’s all about progress and return. You can take your time, but you can’t keep charging forever without ever making a move. One line in the original is key: “In other words, this team led by Jason Blundell and others was established under Sony for nearly 5 years without announcing any project or work.” At that point, it’s no longer “cooking up something big”—it’s more like they never even revealed the move list.

Now for the backstory on this chain of events. Deviation Games was also a team within Sony’s orbit. After Jason Blundell left in 2022, the studio went through layoffs in 2023, then shut down outright in 2024—also without ever announcing a project. Now Dark Outlaw has fallen too, and the pattern feels almost combo-like: support, development, no visible results, cut losses. Bluepoint Games was previously mentioned as having gone through a similar cycle.

Jason Schreier also noted that this shutdown appears to have been a decision made by Sony. In other words, this wasn’t just the team quietly falling apart on its own—the platform side is starting to clear the board more aggressively.

On top of that, Sony’s internal mobile gaming team is also laying people off, cutting around 50 positions. The signal is very clear: Sony now has less tolerance for projects that require long-term investment but show no sign of shipping. Especially in the current tough industry climate, even first-party isn’t working with infinite HP.

How does the player community see it? Very simply, the common response is: at least show us something. Even one piece of concept art, a project codename, or a statement of direction would be better than total silence. Competitive players all understand this—losing isn’t the scary part; the worst thing is not even making it into the match.

One final point: the direct impact on players here isn’t that we lost a known blockbuster, but that we lost a possibility. Because Dark Outlaw never announced a project from start to finish, it’s hard to say expectations were shattered. All you can really say is that Sony has cut off another potential track. For the platform’s lineup, this isn’t some devastating crit, but it is a very real reduction in resources.

My take is straightforward: Sony is tightening its battle lines and prioritizing projects with high visibility and a clear path to returns. As for teams that stay invisible for years, no matter how stacked their résumés are, they may still be handed a direct loss. Harsh, but real.