Jason Blundell, a studio head you might recognize for being one of the main creatives behind Call of Duty Zombies during his time at Treyarch, announced on Monday that he’s founded a new studio within PlayStation Studios called Dark Outlaw Games.
This is two years after Blundell left the studio he previously co-founded, Deviation Games. If that studio name doesn’t ring a bell, that’s no surprise since they were only founded in 2021, Blundell then left in 2022 shortly after they kicked off production of their would-be debut game, only to shut their doors in 2024, without releasing anything.
Deviation had also been working with PlayStation on a new title, so it’s clear that Blundell didn’t leave his Sony contacts behind when he left Deviation.
Now, his new studio is starting out as a PlayStation subsidiary and a new member of the PlayStation Studios team, though it’s currently unknown if they’re working on a brand new IP, which was the case with Deviation, or if Dark Outlaw is working on a pre-existing Sony IP.
Blundell announced the studio on the latest episode of Jeff Gerstmann’s Bonus podcast, where he began by saying “I’ve had the amazing opportunity to create a new studio within PlayStation Studios for Sony.”
“The studio is called Dark Outlaw. And so Dark Outlaw Games have been working away in the shadows for a while, and when we’ve got something to talk about, we’ll step out into the light. But you know the story for me is about the game, not about the studio, so the reason why we’re not doing a fanfare or shout about it from the rooftops is like, ‘let’s get something,’ right?
And it’s such a privilege to be able to do it with Sony as a new first-party studio. You know, Sony doesn’t set up first-party studios all the time. So to have that privilege is humbling – it’s really nice. I’m really excited.”
Blundell and the rest of the currently unknown Dark Outlaw team might be holding back for now because they don’t really have anything concrete to show, but he does make it clear as to why he’s even mentioning the studio now, which is they’re looking to hire more developers.
“We’re currently staffing up, keeping it kind of lowkey – been going for a little bit of time now. Not gonna really comment about what we’re doing exactly, but it’s like we talked about getting the team to gel, getting the ideas clicking right, let’s test those – you know, I’m a programmer at heart – so let’s test those assumptions, and you know, ‘is it working?’
It’s very exciting and I love the fact still, at this point in my career, I’m given these opportunities. And it’s always that desire to want to put that one extra disc on the wall, if you will, and can we bring something to an audience and excite them and get some new IPs or [something] exciting or dangerous. That makes me jump out of bed every morning.”
Source – [Jeff Gerstmann’s Bonus Podcast via Gematsu]