PlayStation Shuts Down Dark Outlaw Games, Trims Around 50 Roles

What happened

A highly upvoted r/Games post linked to a March 24, 2026 Bluesky update from Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier saying PlayStation is closing Dark Outlaw Games, the studio formed in 2025 under former Call of Duty lead Jason Blundell. The same post said Sony was also making other cuts in mobile development, with around 50 staff affected.

Gematsu later summarized the report and added context that Dark Outlaw Games had been established in March 2025 and that its first project was reportedly still in an early stage. That matters because the closure looks less like a shipped product failing in the market and more like PlayStation pulling back before a new project reached public reveal or full production scale.

Why it matters

The story is smaller in headcount than some of the wider 2026 games-industry layoffs, but it says a lot about PlayStation's current priorities. Dark Outlaw Games was supposed to give Jason Blundell a new internal base after Deviation Games shut down in 2024. Closing that studio so quickly suggests Sony is still reassessing which incubation bets it wants to fund, especially when a project does not yet have a public-facing roadmap or a near-term release window.

The mobile detail is just as important. Schreier's post said the cuts extended into mobile development, and Gematsu reported that previously announced projects such as MLB The Show Mobile and Ratchet & Clank: Ranger Rumble would still be supported. That combination points to a narrower strategy rather than a full retreat: fewer experimental investments, continued support for titles already in motion, and more pressure on new teams to show a clear business case early.

What comes next

Whether any Dark Outlaw staff are reassigned inside PlayStation Studios instead of disappearing with the label.

Whether Sony says more publicly about its mobile roadmap after the reported cuts.

Whether Jason Blundell resurfaces with another internal role, a partner-led project, or a new independent team.

For now, the clearest takeaway is that on March 24, 2026 PlayStation still appears to be in portfolio-tightening mode, even for comparatively new teams. In the near term, that likely means fewer incubation experiments and more resources flowing toward projects that fit the company's release and platform plans quickly.