Bloomberg News reportedSony has officially closed Dark Outlaw Games, a first-party PlayStation studio that had been established for just over a year. Led by Jason Blundell, the senior director who worked on the Call of Duty: Black Ops series and Zombies mode, the studio was originally planned to create a brand-new original AAA game for PlayStation. Along with the studio's closure, Sony is also downsizing its PlayStation mobile game development team, affecting an estimated 50 employees.
It wasn't defeated by service-based games, but rather it became a casualty of strategic adjustments.
Initially, it was speculated that Jason Blundell, with his extensive experience in multiplayer online games, and his Dark Outlaw Games team might be developing another live-service multiplayer shooter for Sony. However, this is not the case.
• Non-service games:Jason Blundell himself recently clarified in a livestream that the team is developing "a great game that will excite players," and it is not a service-based game. The studio's closure is purely due to the parent company's business strategy and resource concentration decisions, not a problem with the game's quality.
• Facing closure for the second time:This marks the second time Jason Blundell has witnessed the closure of a Sony-related studio. He co-founded [a company/organization] in 2020.Deviation GamesHe signed an exclusive development agreement with Sony; however, after his departure in 2022, the studio was eventually dissolved in 2024. Sony then invited Jason Blundell to form Dark Outlaw Games internally, but it too suffered the fate of being terminated in the early stages of development.
The effects of Sony's internal restructuring continue to expand: a comprehensive contraction across everything from consoles to mobile games.
In addition to Dark Outlaw Games, the layoffs have also affected PlayStation's mobile device development division. This shows that Sony is further tightening its expansion pace in the face of the current challenging industry environment.
Looking back over the past two years, Sony has been ruthless in its restructuring of its first-party studios:
• August 2023:Renowned studio Naughty Dog has officially announced the termination of development on The Last of Us, an independent multiplayer online game.
• August 2024:Due to the epic commercial failure of the multiplayer shooter game Concord, Sony shut down developer Firewalk Studios.
• August 2026:Bluepoint Games, a top studio known for developing Demon's Souls and the Shadow of the Colossus remake, also faced closure after undergoing a business review, affecting approximately 70 employees.
