Sony is shutting down Darkish Outlaw Video games, a first-party recreation studio led by former Name of Obligation producer Jason Blundell, Bloomberg‘s Jason Schreier experiences. Earlier than main Darkish Outlaw Video games, Blundell was the top of Deviation Video games, which was an impartial studio, but additionally occurred to be growing a PlayStation recreation earlier than it shut down, Schreier says.
Darkish Outlaw Video games had but to announce what it was engaged on, however contemplating Blundell’s expertise with the Name of Obligation franchise, it appears seemingly the studio was growing a multiplayer mission for PlayStation. Blundell was a programmer and producer at Activision earlier than making the leap to Treyarch to work on Name of Obligation 3, and he contributed to a number of Name of Obligation: Black Ops video games after that, together with serving because the director for the marketing campaign and Zombies mode of Name of Obligation: Black Ops III and the profession and Zombies modes of Name of Obligation: Black Ops 4.
Engadget has contacted Sony for extra details about the destiny of Darkish Outlaw Video games. We’ll replace this text if we hear again.
The studio’s shutdown is being paired with cuts to employees at PlayStation targeted on cell growth, in response to Schreier. Sony has made a behavior of shedding employees and shutting down studios within the final 12 months, seemingly as a method to retreat from an earlier funding in on-line, live-service multiplayer video games. The corporate shut down Bluepoint Video games in February following makes an attempt to get a live-service God of Conflict recreation off the bottom. Sony additionally closed Firewalk Studios after the spectacular failure of multiplayer shooter Harmony in October 2024. And a 12 months earlier than that, Naughty Canine formally deserted work on a standalone multiplayer model of The Final of Us in December 2023.
That leaves Sony with no less than two Horizon Zero Daybreak spin-offs, a co-op recreation from unique developer Guerilla Video games and a MMO from developer NCSoft; Fairgame$, which remains to be in lively growth regardless of the departure of Haven Studios head Jade Raymond; Arrowhead Recreation Studios’ Helldivers 2; Bungie’s Future 2 and Marathon; and if you happen to actually wish to stretch, Gran Turismo 7. Sony clearly hasn’t given up on producing on-line multiplayer video games, however it’s not onerous to characterize its try to increase into the area as a catastrophe.
