Call of Duty veteran Jason Blundell, who's worked on some of the series' biggest games, is now heading up a new studio for PlayStation by the name of Dark Outlaw Games.
This news was revealed in an interview with gaming journalist Jeff Gerstmann (via PCGamesInsider), during which Blundell revealed that he's been "working away in the shadows" on a game that has yet to be announced.
Blundell goes on to say that it's a "privilege" to be able to work as part of a first-party Sony studio, although I'm pretty sure that some of Sony's more recent casualties might have something to say about that assessment.
Blundell also acknowledges in the interview that Sony "doesn't set up first-party studios all the time" and says he's "excited" to be working on Dark Outlaw's debut project, although he doesn't reveal what that project is.
If Blundell's past experience is anything to go by, however, we can probably assume that it'll be a first-person shooter of some kind, and since he's a Call of Duty veteran with experience working on the series' Zombies modes, Dark Outlaw's game could well have live service elements.
Whether or not that's a logical move for Sony remains to be seen; the company's most recent live service shooter experiment, last year's Concord, ended in disaster. The game was shut down in just two weeks and its developer was subsequently shuttered for good.
This also won't be Blundell's first foray into development for PlayStation; after leaving Treyarch in 2018, he founded Deviation Games, which was working on a new IP for PlayStation. However, Blundell left in 2022, and the developer then closed its doors last year.
Blundell also isn't the only Call of Duty veteran to leave the Activision "family" and start his own studio; back in February last year, fellow vet David Vonderhaar announced the foundation of BulletFarm, a new AAA studio working on its first game with funding from NetEase.
Of course, it remains to be seen whether Vonderhaar's studio will join the procession of NetEase studios losing their funding or laying off staff members. Stay tuned for more.
