Sony is shutting down Dark Outlaw Games, a first-party studio led by former Call of Duty producer Jason Blundell, according to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier. This marks Blundell's second studio closure under Sony, following the shutdown of Deviation Games in 2022. The studio had not announced any projects, but given Blundell's extensive experience with Call of Duty multiplayer modes, it was likely developing a multiplayer game for PlayStation.

Blundell previously worked at Treyarch on multiple Call of Duty: Black Ops titles, directing both campaign and Zombies modes for Black Ops III and career modes for Black Ops IV. Before that, he was a programmer and producer at Activision. The closure comes amid Sony's broader retreat from live-service multiplayer games, with the company also shutting down Bluepoint Games in February and Firewalk Studios after the failure of Concord in October 2024.

Sony has made a habit of laying off staff and closing studios in the past year as it pivots away from its earlier investment in online multiplayer games. Despite these closures, Sony still maintains several multiplayer projects including Helldivers 2, Destiny 2, and the upcoming Marathon from Bungie. The repeated shutdowns of studios working on multiplayer titles suggest Sony is reassessing its strategy in the competitive live-service market.