Jason Blundell was the face of Zombies for years during previous entries of Black Ops. He stepped away from the franchise in 2020 to pursue other endeavors. Recently, Blundell made an appearance in an interview where he answers some big questions & makes a huge announcement. Today, we’re going over some key points he made during the interview. Here’s what you need to know:
A New Studio
Blundell in this recent interview revealed that he’s started a new games studio under PlayStation Games. The new studio is called ‘Dark Outlaw Games’. While nothing was shared on what they’re working on, but here’s his quote regarding it:
“I’ve had the amazing opportunity to create a new studio within PlayStation Studios for Sony. The studio is called ‘Dark Outlaw’. So ‘Dark Outlaw Games ‘ have been working in the shadows for a while & when we got something to talk about, we’ll step out into the light.
You know the story for me is going to be about the game, not the studio. So the reason we’re not doing a fanfare or shouting from the rooftops is like, let’s get something right? But yeah, Dark Outlaw Games.”
This wouldn’t be the first studio Blundell has he was a studio head of ‘Deviation Games’, another studio he was a part of. Unfortunately the project fell apart & the entire studio closed down. It’ll likely be several years before we hear of what ‘Dark Outlaw Games’ is working on.
Why Blundell Left Treyarch
For the first time since his departure, Jason actually shared some details on why he left Treyarch. His official quote was “The machine was changing — I didn’t think I’d be helpful in the next phase.. It wasn’t as exciting for me anymore.”
He later clarified later that as he kept getting promoted, as he was once a studio head for Treyarch, he felt he was being pushed away from the game & core development. To the point that he could still protect his team, which was ultimately his goal. As he got promoted, he wanted to protect the integrity of the workers behind him, or with him.
He felt he no longer had a helping hand in the actual development of the core gameplay as well as the story, where his passion mainly was. That was the main culprit to his departure. He also stated once he walks into work & feels like he doesn’t want to be there, it’s like time for the end & to find something new.
Though it is sad he couldn’t stay to finish the original Aether story. Perhaps it could’ve helped out with the budget for the story, but maybe it wouldn’t have. It’s also understandable he may not have wanted to be a part of turning Sledgehammer’s Call of Duty into what became Black Ops: Cold War.
It can also be guessed that what he refers to as “the next phase” of Call of Duty is referring to the Warzone era. Obviously he had a big helping hand in developing Blackout, or atleast offered some direction with it.
So when he hears Call of Duty is shifting to a seasonal structure, with focusing more emphasis on MW’s free to play Warzone, he probably checked out. He probably decided that it was far from why he was working at Treyarch, or far from what makes him happy as a developer.
HUGE Zombies Reveal
In his interview, Blundell stated the reason he believes Black Ops 3 Zombies was so successful, is because Campaign for BO3 was screwed for quite some time. He quotes:
“The Campaign was screwed — Hey, you have a 200 man team, start making Zombies Maps while we try to work out what to make.”
The Black Ops 3 Campaign was a problematic experience. With it initially supposed to be an open world, then was changed to be a more structured, linear, & traditional style Campaign. Even though missions can be done in any order, the story’s a mess.
It doesn’t even seem like a Black Ops sequel. Shoehorned in references to Menendez & Nova Six are in there. It felt more like a futuristic standalone game, that got the Black Ops name slapped on it.
With the Campaign is shambles as it was, it left so many resources open for Zombies. It certainly reflected in the atmosphere, replay-ability, the Easter eggs, etc.
Unsolved Easter Eggs Teased
Jason left one final teaser for Easter Egg hunters out there on BO3. It’s not much, but he stated “to be honest, if I have my way, I’ll be dead & buried & there’ll still be stuff in there; & I’ll be quite happy.“
There’s more than likely still secrets hidden in older zombies maps. There’s even rumblings in the community that the ‘Impossible Easter Egg’ has been solved.
THE END
That’s our coverage of the recent interview of Jason Blundell. Were you surprised by any of these reveals &/or information? For a video covering the topic & others, check out it out below:
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