Yet another studio closure has to be added to the list, even though this team had a recognizable name attached to it when it was created.

According to Bloomberg editor Jason Schreier, Sony Interactive Entertainment has shut down Dark Outlaw Games, the studio led by Call of Duty veteran Jason Blundell and founded in March 2025. That means the studio lasted exactly one year, which, frankly, makes very little sense, because building anything lasting in that span is close to impossible even if the target platform is mobile.

Before founding Dark Outlaw Games, Blundell was a co-founder of Deviation Games, an independent studio working with Sony Interactive Entertainment on a new IP. That studio closed in March 2024 after Blundell had already left in September 2022. It was then revealed in December 2023 that he had joined Sony Interactive Entertainment. So this is not the first time Blundell has turned up at a Sony-linked team that eventually ended up being shut down – as if the man simply cannot catch a break.

On ResetEra, J-Soul, who reported the news before Schreier did, wrote that Dark Outlaw Games was still in the early stages of its first project. It remains unclear how many people the studio employed. Beyond Dark Outlaw Games, Sony Interactive Entertainment is also carrying out additional layoffs, including in mobile game development, which Schreier says affect around 50 employees. J-Soul added that these cuts are part of the company’s move away from the mobile market, while still supporting previously announced titles such as MLB The Show Mobile and Ratchet & Clank: Ranger Rumble.

None of that sounds especially encouraging. Microsoft is still pushing to expand in mobile – that is a major reason why it bought Activision Blizzard King – and Nintendo, too, has at least been trying not to ignore iOS and Android entirely. Of course, this does not automatically mean much: the situation can flip very quickly, just as Sony’s stance on PC did, something we have already covered in earlier news.

Source: Gematsu, Bluesky, ResetEra