{"id":1845930,"date":"2026-03-25T11:20:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T08:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1845930"},"modified":"2026-03-25T11:20:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T08:20:38","slug":"sony-shuts-down-dark-outlaw-games-and-downsizes-mobile-games-development-as-playstation-continues-to-rethink-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1845930","title":{"rendered":"Sony shuts down Dark Outlaw Games and downsizes mobile games development as PlayStation continues to rethink plans"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">Sony shuts down Dark Outlaw Games and downsizes mobile games development as PlayStation continues to rethink plans<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">Sony Interactive Entertainment is making other cuts too.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/Dark-Outlaw-Games-logo.jpg?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"Dark Outlaw Games logo\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"Dark-Outlaw-Games-logo.jpg\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Sony Interactive Entertainment<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Fran Ruiz avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/fran-j-ruiz-author.png?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Fran Ruiz avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"fran-j-ruiz-author.png\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/fran-ruiz\">Fran Ruiz<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Contributor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-03-25T11:20:38+00:00\">March 25, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<div class=\"comments\">\n      <a class=\"comments__link comments-bubble\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/sony-closes-dark-outlaw-games-and-downsizes-mobile-gaming-efforts?view=comments\" rel=\"nofollow\"><br \/>\n          24 comments<br \/>\n      <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>2026 has been off to an awful start when it comes to the health of the games industry, despite <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/january-2026-us-consumer-spending-on-video-games-was-up\">consumer spending holding up<\/a> in the face of increasingly global pressure. Sony and PlayStation haven&#8217;t escaped the layoff-related drama, with the most recent waves of layoffs affecting even the renowned <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/sony-closes-acclaimed-demons-souls-and-shadow-of-the-colossus-remake-studio-bluepoint-despite-acknowledging-it-had-delivered-exceptional-experiences-for-the-playstation-community\">remaster and remake studio Bluepoint Games<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday, 24th March, we learned Dark Outlaw Games &#8211; a studio founded barely a year ago &#8211; is being shut down, too. Call of Duty veteran Jason Blundell was leading the development efforts at the new company before Sony pulled funding from the studio. ResetEra user J-Soul <a href=\"https:\/\/www.resetera.com\/threads\/playstation-to-shutter-dark-outlaw-games-jason-schreier-yup.1471954\/\">first broke the news<\/a> that a new project was &#8220;still in the early stages&#8221; when SIE decided to close the fresh &#8220;incubation studio.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/jasonschreier.bsky.social\/post\/3mht6bqvru22v\">Bloomberg&#8217;s Jason Schreier<\/a> later confirmed the report, adding: &#8220;PlayStation is also making other cuts including in mobile development.&#8221; Around 50 workers have been affected by these additional cuts. According to J-Soul, PlayStation will be moving away from the mobile game market, though previously announced titles will continue their journey (at least for now). This doesn&#8217;t seem to affect external collaborations <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/guerrilla-affirms-its-working-on-new-games-in-the-horizon-franchise-as-ncsoft-mmo-skips-ps5\">like the one with NCSoft for an online Horizon game<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Circling back to Dark Outlaw Games and Blundell, that&#8217;s the second studio with the CoD veteran at the helm that&#8217;s been shut down recently. Deviation Games came to be in 2020 and started work on a &#8220;groundbreaking triple-A&#8221; original IP. By late 2022, the co-founder was out and set to join Sony Interactive Entertainment. In March 2024, it was revealed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gematsu.com\/2024\/03\/deviation-games-shuts-down\">Deviation had closed its doors<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>These new moves by Sony and the PlayStation division add to the growing suspicion in media and player circles that the next generation&#8217;s creative efforts might feel more traditional when compared to the live service-heavy vision that&#8217;s covered almost the entirety of PS5&#8217;s (still ong-oing) life cycle.<\/p>\n<p>With live-service projects cancelled left and right following <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/sony-shuts-down-concord-developer-firewalk-studios-game-will-remain-permanently-offline\">Concord&#8217;s catastrophic failure<\/a> and an overcrowded online game market that&#8217;s slowing down <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/fortnite-maker-epic-cuts-over-1000-jobs-as-battle-royale-suffers-slump\">even for whales like Fortnite<\/a>, the message here seems to be that PlayStation is returning to a busier cadence of huge exclusive releases, or at least that&#8217;s the intention. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/playstation-is-reportedly-ditching-its-pc-release-strategy-and-most-first-party-games-will-now-be-console-exclusive\">Expect a thinner PC strategy<\/a> as a direct result of all this as well.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>2026 has been off to an awful start when it comes to the health of the games industry, despite <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/january-2026-us-consumer-spending-on-video-games-was-up\">consumer spending holding up<\/a> in the face of increasingly global pressure. Sony and PlayStation haven&#8217;t escaped the layoff-related drama, with the most recent waves of layoffs affecting even the renowned <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/sony-closes-acclaimed-demons-souls-and-shadow-of-the-colossus-remake-studio-bluepoint-despite-acknowledging-it-had-delivered-exceptional-experiences-for-the-playstation-community\">remaster and remake studio Bluepoint Games<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday, 24th March, we learned Dark Outlaw Games &#8211; a studio founded barely a year ago &#8211; is being shut down, too. Call of Duty veteran Jason Blundell was leading the development efforts at the new company before Sony pulled funding from the studio. ResetEra user J-Soul <a href=\"https:\/\/www.resetera.com\/threads\/playstation-to-shutter-dark-outlaw-games-jason-schreier-yup.1471954\/\">first broke the news<\/a> that a new project was &#8220;still in the early stages&#8221; when SIE decided to close the fresh &#8220;incubation studio.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/jasonschreier.bsky.social\/post\/3mht6bqvru22v\">Bloomberg&#8217;s Jason Schreier<\/a> later confirmed the report, adding: &#8220;PlayStation is also making other cuts including in mobile development.&#8221; Around 50 workers have been affected by these additional cuts. According to J-Soul, PlayStation will be moving away from the mobile game market, though previously announced titles will continue their journey (at least for now). This doesn&#8217;t seem to affect external collaborations <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/guerrilla-affirms-its-working-on-new-games-in-the-horizon-franchise-as-ncsoft-mmo-skips-ps5\">like the one with NCSoft for an online Horizon game<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Circling back to Dark Outlaw Games and Blundell, that&#8217;s the second studio with the CoD veteran at the helm that&#8217;s been shut down recently. Deviation Games came to be in 2020 and started work on a &#8220;groundbreaking triple-A&#8221; original IP. By late 2022, the co-founder was out and set to join Sony Interactive Entertainment. In March 2024, it was revealed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gematsu.com\/2024\/03\/deviation-games-shuts-down\">Deviation had closed its doors<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>These new moves by Sony and the PlayStation division add to the growing suspicion in media and player circles that the next generation&#8217;s creative efforts might feel more traditional when compared to the live service-heavy vision that&#8217;s covered almost the entirety of PS5&#8217;s (still ong-oing) life cycle.<\/p>\n<p>With live-service projects cancelled left and right following <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/sony-shuts-down-concord-developer-firewalk-studios-game-will-remain-permanently-offline\">Concord&#8217;s catastrophic failure<\/a> and an overcrowded online game market that&#8217;s slowing down <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/fortnite-maker-epic-cuts-over-1000-jobs-as-battle-royale-suffers-slump\">even for whales like Fortnite<\/a>, the message here seems to be that PlayStation is returning to a busier cadence of huge exclusive releases, or at least that&#8217;s the intention. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/playstation-is-reportedly-ditching-its-pc-release-strategy-and-most-first-party-games-will-now-be-console-exclusive\">Expect a thinner PC strategy<\/a> as a direct result of all this as well.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News Sony shuts down Dark Outlaw Games and downsizes mobile games development as PlayStation continues to rethink plans Sony Interactive Entertainment is making other cuts too. Image credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment News by Fran Ruiz Contributor Published on March 25, 2026 24 comments 2026 has been off to an awful start when it comes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-1845930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1845930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1845930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1845930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1845930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}