One day after Sony Interactive Entertainment announced the shutdown of its year-old PlayStation studio Dark Outlaw Games, founder Jason Blundell and former level designer JCbackfire discussed the closure on a Twitch stream. They mourned the promising early-stage project—which was not a live-service game—while expressing no ill will toward Sony amid its strategic shifts.
The Twitch stream came after ResetEra user J-Soul first reported the March 24 internal announcement, later confirmed by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier. Blundell, who founded Dark Outlaw last spring following his prior studio Deviation Games' 2024 closure, said of the cancelled project: "You’re gonna mourn what could have been because we were making a hell of a game." He stressed fans would have been excited, attributing the decision to changing priorities: "I can reassure you—and it’s been reassured to me—it’s just times change, focus changes... no ill will." JCbackfire, now unemployed with the team, added: "Long story short, we are unemployed. The sentiment is definitely we’re down but not out." The pair avoided specifics to respect confidentiality, with Blundell noting, "It fucking sucked." The closure aligns with broader Sony challenges, including recent Bluepoint Games layoffs.
