Sony PlayStation shuts down Dark Outlaw Games after just one year

Sony is shutting down yet another one of its game development studios. Since making a number of acquisitions between 2019 and 2023, Sony has been slowly winding back on its investments. The latest casaulty is actually a new studio that formed just last year – Dark Outlaw Games.

Sony brought in Jason Blundell, former co-head of Treyarch and director of Call of Duty: Zombies, to form Dark Outlaw Games just one year ago. Now, as of the 24th of March, Sony is shutting the studio down before it could even get a game greenlit.

Unfortunately for Blundell, this isn't even the first time this has happened to him. He also formed Deviation Games back in 2020, only for the studio to shut down in 2024 following his departure in 2022 to join Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Sony has burned a lot of money over the PS5 generation chasing the live-service golden goose, with very little to show for it. More than a dozen live-service titles had been greenlit early on in the PS5's lifecycle, a move that drew much criticism from core PlayStation fans, as the company had just had tremendous success in the PS4 generation making cinematic single-player games.

This latest shutdown is part of Sony's effort to course correct following the retirement of former PlayStation head, Jim Ryan.

KitGuru Says: Sony has missed on almost every major live-service project it has attempted so far. Even Bungie, once hailed as kings of the genre, have begun floundering over the past few years since joining Sony. We can only hope that next generation, Sony gets back to the excellent single-player titles it became widely known for during the PS4 and PS3 eras.

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