Dark Outlaw Games founder says it ‘f**king sucks’ that Sony closed his studio but games are scrapped ‘all the time’

The founder of Dark Outlaw Games has shared his views on its closure by PlayStation.

Earlier this week it emerged that PlayStation had closed down the studio, which had only just been founded last year by former Call of Duty Zombies lead Jason Blundell.

Now, appearing as a guest in a Twitch stream hosted by the game’s level designer JC Farmer, Blundell gave his views on the situation, saying it “fucking sucks” that the studio was closed down, but that such situations are to be expected in the industry.

“Are we disappointed? Yeah. I mean we’re laughing and we’re joking [on the stream] but you’re depressed, you’re sad, and you’re going to mourn what could have been, because we were making a hell of a game,” Blundell said, his voice cracking.

Elsewhere in the stream Blundell emphasised that the quality of the game itself wasn’t in question, and that cancellations like this happen all the time when a company’s focus shifts.

“The thing that’s hard is, everything before this point was all glowing, what we were doing was all good, but you know – it’s a big company, decisions have to be made, and I totally respect that,” he explained. “It hurts a little bit because you’re like ‘argh, it’s dead’, but you know.”

“Yeah,” Farmer replied, “it really doesn’t feel like it was the quality of what it was, it feels like very industry [based] stuff.”

Blundell replied: “I can reassure you, and it’s been reassured to me as well, it’s just as times change, focus changes. But the project we were doing, what we were doing, I think fans would have been very excited. The best game is the one you never played, unfortunately.

“But man oh man, it’s disappointing. I’m disappointed. You are, I am, we all were, but it’s how it is, you know? But you don’t… you know, we have a moment – by the way, I will do a little cry – and then you brush yourself off and get up and get going again.”

47-year-old Blundell then joked that “maybe I’ll get one more game out just before I’m 80”, before adding: “Rocky did not defeat Ivan Drago through strength, he defeated him through endurance, passion and focus.”

Farmer also confirmed that the game being worked on wasn’t a live service title, and stressed that they couldn’t talk more about it due to confidentiality agreements.

Elsewhere in the discussion, Blundell noted that games are regularly cancelled at the early stage for a variety of reasons, but due to his previous games and the connection with Sony, more attention was paid to this one.

“I’ve done full games that I’ve got to the end and the community’s said ‘no, I don’t like that’ – that’s even worse,” he laughed. “You’re like ‘oh God, that was everything I wanted to do, and they didn’t like it’.

“What do you do? Do it again. Do it again. Something comes in, do it again. As the industry changes – the shape, or the scale, as the world changes, different kinds of projects will be formed – adapt, change, look at what’s going on, look at what people are asking for, go again.

“Our job is to be creative, to be passionate, and give something to the people at the end, right? And yeah, now we have spotlights on us.”

“I’ve said this to you before,” Blundell told Farmer, “I never wanted to be in front of a camera. You want to be behind the camera, working, and when it comes out you go ‘look!’ and then go back into the darkness, right?

“But because we’ve got spotlights on us it’s like ‘JASON BLUNDELL!’ and then everyone becomes aware – it’s like, this happens all the time. Have you ever seen pilot season for TV shows? Dead, dead, dead, one pick-up.”