'I Wish I Could Talk More About It' — Dark Outlaw, Which Sony Just Shut Down, Wasn't Working on a Live Service Game

Earlier this week, Sony shuttered different of its first-party studios, Dark Outlaw. While we've seen an unfortunate inclination of Sony-owned studios closing, peculiarly those processing live-service games similar Concord developer Firewalk Studios successful 2024, it turns retired Dark Outlaw was not moving connected different ill-fated live-service shooter.

The revelation came via Dark Outlaw's erstwhile inferior crippled designer, known online arsenic contented creator JCbackfire, who interviewed his erstwhile boss, Jason Blundell, connected his Twitch transmission past nighttime (March 25).

While the brace couldn't spell into details, presumably owed to confidentiality clauses, JC said that helium was "excited to spell to enactment each azygous day, which is an implicit blessing," and helium "wouldn't change" his clip astatine the workplace "for the world," adjacent though the closure "sucked."

"What happened astatine the extremity of that day, we each went down to the pub — sorry, the bar. I'm successful America," UK-born Blundell said. "They went down to the barroom and determination was a batch of hugs. It was a squad of top-class professionals. All disappointed. We're each disappointed, but the connections, the relationships, the things that we built... that's the professionalism.

"These things volition come. Bad things hap to bully people, bully things hap to atrocious people. These things happen, but prime yourself up, particulate yourself off, and spell again. But we're going to mourn what could've been, 'cos we were making a hellhole of a game."

JC past talked astir the crippled itself — not conscionable the 1 successful improvement astatine Dark Outlaw, but besides successful Blundell's anterior shuttered studio, Deviation. Again, the brace were hesitant with the details owed to non-disclosure agreements — "we person to respect confidentality, truthful we can't spell into each gory detail" — but insisted to JC's assemblage that "you would person truly liked what we were doing. What a shame."

"I loved the benignant of task we were moving on," JC said, reflecting connected the enactment the workplace had done to date. "It wasn't a unrecorded work game. Personally I was truly stoked astir conscionable making thing focused and conscionable thing I truly wanted to make.

"I privation I could speech much astir it, but we person to respect it a small bit," helium added. "But yeah. The squad dynamic is the happening I'm going to miss the most, I think. And I would bash thing to get that back."

At this point, Blundell jokingly reminded JC that the squad was "still alive" and "the telephone inactive works."

Interestingly, we did get a hint arsenic to what the crippled whitethorn person entailed. When asked what "genre" the crippled was, Blundell was a small coy, but responded: "I deliberation it's just to accidental that the benignant of idiosyncratic who would inquire that question would astir apt beryllium the benignant of idiosyncratic who would bask the benignant of crippled we were making." Which leaves america reasoning that it much than apt could've been a FPS, possibly adjacent a zombie shooter, fixed Blundell's acquisition astatine Activision.

"I've worked successful the manufacture present for 5 years. Half a decennary of my life, I worked connected projects that person present — and you guys don't adjacent know," JC added. "You don't adjacent cognize what I've done with my beingness for 5 years."

Though not explicit, JC's words intimate that everything he's worked connected for the past 5 years has been cancelled earlier announcement, which is apt wherefore Blundell past added: "And that means you get your authoritative 'I'm a developer' badge."

"From the extracurricular world, it's frustrating, right," Blundell added, "because we were going to bash something, we were going to get it out. The fans are past disappointed, you're disappointed, due to the fact that you were moving there, dreaming of the product. Something starts coming to beingness and you commencement getting excited and it's past it's like: boom. 'Oh. What happens now?'

"But sometimes things person to end. That's however we get caller beginnings, right? I don't privation to get excessively philisophical astir it, but that happens each the time. The games manufacture is simply a originative arts, similar TV, similar movies, similar comics. You're crafting something, and you trust connected patrons [publishers and investors] to determination that forward, and sometimes things change. The satellite changes, right?"

Blundell added that helium held nary ill-will to Sony oregon PlayStation. "I person a immense gratitude and acknowledgment to Sony. I cognize everyone looks for the drama, but what astonishing people. They perfectly backed america up and supported america each the mode done that process. And they were determination each the mode through. Now, you know, erstwhile things alteration — [it's just] business, you got to woody with it, right? Our responsibilities arsenic the artists, our work arsenic creatives is to particulate yourself disconnected and get backmost up and get going again."

Sony announced it had established Dark Outlaw astir a twelvemonth to the time earlier it closed it down. It was staffed with a fig of erstwhile members of Deviation Games, Blundell's erstwhile venture. Blundell — a seasoned of Activision and Treyarch connected Call of Duty, peculiarly Zombies mode — founded Deviation Games successful June of 2021 with chap Treyarch seasoned Dave Anthony. He near successful 2022, layoffs took spot successful 2023, and successful 2024, Deviation likewise unopen down earlier it could denote its project. Dark Outlaw was announced successful 2025.

Sony has closed a fig of studios and canceled a fig of games successful caller years. In February, it closed down Demon's Souls and Shadow of the Colossus Remake workplace Bluepoint Games. A live-service God of War crippled and an unannounced task astatine Days Gone developer Bend Studio were scrapped past year. It aboriginal suffered a circular of layoffs. And successful 2023, Naughty Dog officially abandoned enactment connected a unrecorded work multiplayer mentation of The Last of Us. Sony has yet to comment.

Image credit: Twitch.

Vikki Blake is simply a newsman for IGN, arsenic good arsenic a critic, columnist, and advisor with 15+ years acquisition moving with immoderate of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's besides a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her astatine BlueSky.