Despite what many had assumed, Dark Outlaw Games’ recently-cancelled PlayStation game was not a live-service one.
Yesterday, it announced Dark Outlaw Games – a studio headed up by Call of Duty veteran Jason Blundell, and which was founded barely a year ago – was being shut down by Sony.
Details on what the studio had been working on remained unclear, however given the recent pull back by Sony on its once lofty live-service plans, it was widely presumed that Dark Outlaw Games was developing something along these lines. But, it turns out this was not the case.
This little nugget into the behind the scenes at Dark Outlaw Games was confirmed during a recent Twitch stream with junior game designer JCBackfire and Blundell. The two developers reflected on recent news, with JCBackfire stating he “loved the type of project” the studio was working on, noting it “wasn’t a live-service game” (something he was “stoked about”).
While the duo recognised that the studio’s fate and its game’s cancellation “hurts a little bit”, they have no hard feelings towards PlayStation. Rather, they put the cancellation down to a tough business environment and “industry stuff”, saying it wasn’t a case of the game’s poor quality.
“Times change, focus changes, but the project we were doing and what we were doing… I think fans would have been very excited,” Blundell said, before adding in good humour: “The best game is the one you never play.”
Other studios shuttered by Sony over the past few years include Firewalk, which was closed following the failed launch of its live-service shooter Concord. The game was taken offline just two weeks after its PC and PS5 debut in 2024.
More recently, Bluepoint – the studio behind the widely praised Demon’s Souls remake and the Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, to name just two – was also shut down by Sony.
