5 years after leaving Treyarch, former studio co-chief and Name of Responsibility producer Jason Blundell is heading up a brand new first-party PlayStation Studio referred to as Darkish Outlaw Video games.
“Darkish Outlaw Video games have been working away within the shadows for some time, and once we’ve received one thing to speak about we’ll step out into the sunshine,” Blundell stated in an interview with Jeff Gerstmann. “However the story for me is concerning the recreation, not concerning the studio. So the rationale why we’re not doing a fanfare or shouting about it from the rooftops is, let’s get one thing, proper?
“It is such a privilege to have the ability to do it with Sony as a brand new first-party studio. Sony does not arrange first-party studios on a regular basis. To have that privilege is humbling, it is very nice. I am actually excited.”
Blundell stated Darkish Outlaw has been “staffing up [and] preserving it sort of low key” so far, however declined to say something particular concerning the studio’s present standing, a lot much less what it is engaged on. “We’re getting the workforce to jell, getting the concepts clicking—I am a programmer at coronary heart, so let’s check these assumptions: Is it working, is it working? You are making an attempt to hit that escape velocity.”
Blundell has an extended checklist of credit to his identify, starting—simply as he stated—as a programmer on Starlancer in 2000. However he is greatest identified for a future on Name of Responsibility at Treyarch: He served as producer on Name of Responsibility 3 and Black Ops, directed two Zombies maps for Black Ops 2, and directed each the marketing campaign and Zombies modes for Black Ops 3. He left Treyarch in 2020 after 13 years on the studio, saying his time on the studio “has been nothing in need of superior.”
This is not Blundell’s first comeback: In 2021 he launched a brand new studio alongside fellow Name of Responsibility veteran Dave Anthony in 2021 referred to as Deviation Video games. Apparently, that studio’s first venture was being developed in partnership with Sony, however Blundell left Deviation simply over a 12 months later, in September 2022, and the studio closed in 2024 with out releasing a recreation.
Apparently that sad end result hasn’t diminished his enthusiasm. “It’s totally thrilling,” Blundell stated within the interview. “I really like the truth that nonetheless at this level in my profession, I am given these alternatives. It is at all times that need to—once more, you need to put that one further disc on the wall, if you’ll, and might we carry one thing to an viewers and excite them and get some new IPs … that makes me soar off the bed each morning.”
