PlayStation shutters Dark Outlaw Games as roughly 50 staff are laid off
The studio, founded in 2025 by former Treyarch co-head Jason Blundell, was developing an early-stage project before the closure and follows Bluepoint's recent shutdown.
PlayStation closed Dark Outlaw Games, the studio Jason Blundell launched last year, and the team’s early-stage project has been cancelled.
According to a ResetEra thread, the studio was still in the initial phases of development when Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) decided to shut it down.
Journalist Jason Schreier reported that roughly 50 people were affected by the latest cuts, writing on Bluesky that the layoffs included staff across PlayStation’s broader organization, including its mobile development arm. His post is available on Bluesky.
More layoffs today: PlayStation is closing Dark Outlaw Games, a studio formed last year by former Call of Duty lead Jason Blundell (his previous PlayStation studio, Deviation, was shut down in 2024). PlayStation is also making other cuts including in mobile development. Around 50 people laid off.
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier.bsky.social) 2026-03-24T18:10:02.888Z
Dark Outlaw was Blundell’s second studio to close after he left Activision in 2020 following 13 years at Treyarch. His previous company, Deviation Games, cancelled a PlayStation project and shut down in 2024.
The news makes Dark Outlaw the second PlayStation studio to be closed in recent weeks, following the shutdown of Bluepoint Games. In a message to staff, PlayStation’s studios boss Hermen Hulst said the decision reflected “an increasingly challenging industry environment,” citing rising development costs, slowed industry growth, changing player behavior, and broader economic headwinds.
For now, there has been no public statement from Blundell or an official PlayStation press release beyond the internal note referenced above.
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