‘It Wasn’t Live Service’
Sony’s latest studio closure hid an unexpected twist: Dark Outlaw wasn’t chasing a battle pass or seasonal roadmap. On a March 25 Twitch stream, former junior designer and content creator JCbackfire said the unannounced project wasn’t a live-service game, pushing back on the assumption that Sony had axed yet another online shooter. “I loved the type of project we were working on,” JC said. “It wasn’t a live service game. Personally I was really stoked about just making something focused and just something I really wanted to make.”
JC hosted the stream with his former boss, studio head Jason Blundell, who couldn’t share specifics because of confidentiality agreements. Even so, both spoke warmly about the work that never made it to players. “I was excited to go to work every single day, which is an absolute blessing,” JC said, calling the closure “sucked,” but adding he “wouldn’t change” his time there “for the world.”
‘We Were Making A Hell Of A Game’
Blundell, best known for his years at Treyarch shaping Call of Duty’s Zombies mode, described the shutdown’s final hours with a rueful smile. “What happened at the end of that day, we all went down to the pub — sorry, the bar. I’m in America,” he said. “There was a lot of hugs. It was a team of top-class professionals. All disappointed. We’re all disappointed, but the connections, the relationships, the things that we built... that’s the professionalism.”
He didn’t dwell on blame. “I have a huge gratitude and thanks to Sony. I know everyone looks for the drama, but what amazing people. They absolutely backed us up and supported us all the way through that process,” Blundell said. “When things change — [it’s just] business, you got to deal with it, right? Our responsibilities as the artists, our responsibility as creatives is to dust yourself off and get back up and get going again.”
JC, who’s spent five years in development, voiced the quiet frustration of shipping nothing despite years of effort. “Half a decade of my life, I worked on projects that have now — and you guys don’t even know,” he said. Blundell chimed in with gallows humor: “And that means you get your official ‘I’m a developer’ badge.”
What The Game Might Have Been
Details are scarce, but there was one telling moment. When asked about the game’s genre, Blundell played coy: “I think it’s fair to say that the kind of person who would ask that question would probably be the kind of person who would enjoy the kind of game we were making.” Coming from the former Zombies chief, that nudge all but points toward an FPS, possibly with undead or co-op roots — speculation, but hardly out of character for his résumé.
JC wished he could share more — “I wish I could talk more about it, but we have to respect it a little bit” — yet insisted fans “would have really liked what we were doing. What a shame.” He also praised the studio culture above all else. “The team dynamic is the thing I’m going to miss the most, I think. And I would do anything to get that back.” Blundell teased the bonds aren’t broken just because the lights are off. “We’re still alive,” he joked. “The phone still works.”
Another Closure In A Rough Stretch For PlayStation
Sony formed Dark Outlaw almost exactly a year before it shut it down, staffing it with veterans from Blundell’s previous studio, Deviation Games. Deviation was founded in June 2021 with fellow Treyarch alum Dave Anthony; Blundell exited in 2022, layoffs hit in 2023, and the studio itself closed in 2024 before ever announcing its project. Dark Outlaw’s fate echoed that arc — a build-up, then a hard stop before reveal.
The decision lands amid a broader retrenchment. Firewalk Studios, the team behind the live-service shooter Concord, was shut in 2024. In February, Sony closed Bluepoint Games, the acclaimed studio behind the Demon’s Souls and Shadow of the Colossus remakes. A live-service God of War project and an unannounced game at Days Gone developer Bend Studio were scrapped last year, and Naughty Dog formally dropped its multiplayer The Last of Us project in 2023. Sony has yet to comment on Dark Outlaw’s closure.
From the inside, the whiplash is familiar. “We were going to do something, we were going to get it out,” Blundell said of Dark Outlaw. “Something starts coming to life and you start getting excited and it’s then it’s like: boom. ‘Oh. What happens now?’ But sometimes things have to end. That’s how we get new beginnings, right?”
Whether those beginnings happen together or apart, the message from the stream felt clear: this team had a focused, non–live-service shooter-like idea it believed in, and it still has the will to try again. If their phones really do keep ringing, don’t be surprised if Blundell and company resurface with something that plays to their strengths — tighter scope, clear identity, and yes, the kind of game people who ask about “genre” actually want to play. Image credit: Twitch.
