In an exciting development for gaming fans, Jason Blundell, the visionary behind Call of Duty: Zombies, has confirmed the creation of a new first-party studio under PlayStation Studios, named Dark Outlaw Games. The announcement came during a recent interview on The Jeff Gerstmann Show podcast, where Blundell shared his enthusiasm for the opportunity to build a fresh team within Sony’s family.
“I’ve had the amazing opportunity to create a new studio within PlayStation Studios for Sony,” Blundell revealed. “The studio is called Dark Outlaw. We’ve 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.”
Blundell spent 13 years at Treyarch contributing to Call of Duty’s massive success, creating the Zombie mode among other accomplishments in his time with the team, before departing in 2020. Following his exit from Activision, he co-founded Deviation Games, a venture that partnered with PlayStation but he left the studio in 2022, which ultimately shuttered in 2024 without releasing a title. Blundell has now rallied former Deviation team members and new talent to craft something innovative under Sony’s banner. While no details have been provided for leaving the studio he founded, It’s not impossible that this may have been an easier and faster solution to become a PlayStation Studio and gain access to internal resources and funding rather than going through a studio acquisition right in the middle of the ABK acquisition hearings that could have possibly delayed any such transactions.
Details on the project in the works at Dark Outlaw are still kept secret, but it’s likely safe to assume that this might be a live service game given Sony’s recent push in the genre and Jason Blundell’s extensive experience and success throughout his career in that genre. This could be Sony’s shoe-in to compete against Call of Duty and Battlefield in the First Person Shooter segment.
