Dark Outlaw Games were an LA-based developer first revealed in 2025, but their history started years prior. DO was founded by Jason Blundell, who was co-studio head of Treyarch until 2020. He's best known for directing Campaign and Zombies modes in Black Ops 3/4, but his history with the IP began with 2006's COD3. Due to this pedigree, he was able to set up his own studio, Deviation Games.
At Summer Game Fest 2021, he and fellow COD veteran David Anthony announced Deviation and a Sony partnership to fund their new AAA shooter IP. However, this was the last we'd hear from Deviation, which closed in March 2024. Sony pulled funding around when Blundell left in 2022, likely so he could form DO within PS Studios. Poaching from Deviation then began around early 2023.
As DO, Blundell's studio (Anthony has been self-employed since Deviation closed) was almost certainly creating the PS5 title Sony wanted from Deviation. However, the studio was closed in March 2026, before they even announced the name of their game.
The news of Bluepoint's closure 2 months prior was accompanied by a lengthy internal message from PS Studios boss Hermen Hulst explaining the reasons why. However, for DO, Sony couldn't even dignify them with that, instead simply stating it was for 'long-term sustainability' when pressed for comment.
Blundell, however, appeared on a livestream the day after news broke, stating that they weren't developing a live-service and that they were making 'a hell of a game'. If it were similar to Deviation's game (Draconis, which had gameplay leaked), it was a third-person co-op shooter where the player would fight ooze-like enemies. According to Blundell, the 20-person studio were also blindsided by the closure, and attributed it to a shift in Sony's strategy.
Unfortunately, of the 9 PS Studios closed during the PS5 era, DO's closure is the hardest to analyze due to their brief 1-year history, combined with how little Sony mentioned them. Based on the above comments, though, it's likely Sony are now increasingly reluctant to invest in the multiplayer space given how many failures they've had on PS5, and are content with cutting their losses before any multiplayer project can become a Concord-level mistake.
Regardless, Blundell's situation dating back to Deviation's 2021 announcement is yet another significant blemish, and further evidence that Sony's acquisition spree and willingness to pursue so much inorganic growth during the PS5 era was a mistake.
