Call of Duty veteran's new studio, which was just announced in 2025, is reportedly being closed by Sony

Just over a month after Sony confirmed the closure of its renowned remaster studio Bluepoint Games, it's reportedly now pulled the plug on Dark Outlaw Games, founded by Call of Duty veteran Jason Blundell and announced to the world just a year ago.

Word of the closure first appeared on Resetera, which said Dark Outlaw was still in the "early stages" of work on an unannounced project. Very shortly after, Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier said the same thing in a post on Bluesky. Both Schreier and the Resetera message said Sony had also laid off an undisclosed number of employees: Resetera said the number of employees let go is "small," while Schreier pegged it at around 50.

A Sony spokesperson declined to confirm the closure, but did say in a statement provided to PC Gamer that it laid off more employees. "Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Studio Business Group has made several strategic adjustments to support long-term sustainability," the spokesperson said. "As part of this process, there were limited workforce reductions across select teams. We greatly appreciate the contributions of all those impacted."

Dark Outlaw was unveiled in March 2025, although it had been working on something "for a while" prior to that, Blundell said at the time. He also heaped praise upon Sony, saying, "It's such a privilege to be able to do it with Sony as a new first-party studio. Sony doesn't set up first-party studios all the time. To have that privilege is humbling, it's really nice. I'm really excited."

Blundell had previously been lined up to work with Sony on a project at Deviation Games, a studio he founded in 2021 with fellow Call of Duty vet Dave Anthony. But Blundell left Deviation just over a year later, in September 2022, and the studio closed in 2024 without releasing a game.

Blundell was a very big name of the Call of Duty series, eventually rising to serve as executive producer of the first two Black Ops games and director of Black Ops 3. He left Treyarch in 2020 after 13 years at the studio, saying his time at the studio "has been nothing short of awesome."

But that sort of CV doesn't seem to mean much in this day and age, where major layoffs and studio closures have become virtually routine. 2023 was seen at the time as a uniquely awful year for the games industry, yet the carnage has continued unabated: Earlier today, Fortnite maker Epic Games laid off more than 1,000 employees, saying that despite all that Fortnite money, it's just not making enough money. March has also seen new rounds of layoffs at Ubisoft, Crystal Dynamics, and Amazon.