Former Call of Duty director joins Sony to build new studio: Dark Outlaw Games

The PlayStation maker's roster of game development studios is known for pushing out blockbuster narrative titles and, more recently, much more multiplayer-focused experiences. Now, the number of first-party studios that Sony owns is growing by one more, with a brand-new addition joining the fray, and with a veteran Call of Duty developer at its helm.

Dark Outlaw Games is the name of the newest PlayStation Studios developer, and it's being led by Jason Blundell.

"It's such a privilege to be able to do it with Sony as a new first-party studio," said Blundell while announcing the news in the latest episode of Jeff Gerstmann’s Bonus Podcast. "Sony doesn't set up first-party studios all the time. To have that privilege is humbling; it's really nice. I'm really excited."

Jason Blundell's previous work in the games industry mostly involves Call of Duty titles under the studio Treyarch. In the long-running Activision franchise, he has worked on Call of Duty 3, Black Ops, Black Ops 2 zombies, and Black Ops 3 as a producer and director of campaigns, zombies, and more. He ended his stint at Treyarch in 2020 after 13 years.

"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," adds Blundell. "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 shouting about it from the rooftops is like, ‘Let’s get something,’ right?”

The studio is said to be staffing up at the moment while working on its first project, but it doesn't look like we will get to know about its first PlayStation game for some time, considering the company itself is still growing. It's unclear if this will be a single-player title or a live service venture.