What is the biggest regret in the gaming industry?Xbox cancels "Blackbird", a sci-fi shooter that was stunning

2025-07-06 00:03:13|Myriagame |source：minecraft skins

The headlines this week are undoubtedly Microsoft's massive layoffs, with Xbox's first-party studios and multiple third-party games deeply involved.The games that have been confirmed to be cut include Rare's "Everwild", The Initiative's "Perfect Dark: Reboot", the unannounced games by John Romero, the founder of Doom, and the massively multiplayer online game that has not yet been announced by ZeniMax Online Studios (ZOS), a developer of "The Elder Scrolls OL", codenamed "Blackbird".

Now, IGN has learned that the team of hundreds of people in this MMO game code-named "Blackbird" has been cut.IGN learned through several sources familiar with the project that Blackbird is a new science fiction IP.Although it has been in development since 2018, the production time is expected as ZeniMax is creating a brand new game engine for it.

Last year, a source told IGN that the pre-production of "Blackbird" is progressing smoothly and the team is actively stepping up its efforts, hoping to enter the full production stage as soon as possible.Xbox has approved the expansion, with some people from other teams such as The Elder Scrolls OL being transferred to the project, and some people who were sucked after Arkane’s Austin studio closed last year.

A source recalled that last year, Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, said at a conference that Xbox shut down Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks and Alpha Dog Games to justify increasing the number of employees in other gaming studios, such as ZeniMax Online Studios.

Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier released a long report, revealing some unknown details behind the ambitious game "Blackbird".

This is a sci-fi black aesthetic with dynamic movement mechanisms (similar to movies like Blade Runner) third-person online treasure-brushing shooter, similar to the popular game Destiny, but set in a brand new series

It has been developed for more than seven years and is built on a brand new engine

Pay great attention to vertical movement. Players can use skills such as two-stage jump, aerial sprint, hook and climb to shuttle between tall buildings like superheroes.

Just a few months before the game was cut, the vertical slice of the game was allegedly shocked Microsoft game director Phil Spencer

While the development of the Blackbird Project initially encountered some obstacles—on the one hand due to technical issues, and on the other hand, the success of Elder Scrolls OL has exhausted most of the resources of ZOS—the game has made quite rapid progress in recent years and is expected to be released in 2028.ZOS brings a "impressive vertical slice" to Microsoft executives in March this year

Executives praised the project, and Microsoft Games Director Phil Spencer was so amazed by Blackbird that Matt Butty, head of Xbox Game Studios, had to take his controller so that the meeting about the game could go as planned.

Due to its good internal reputation and the development progress was quite rapid and smooth, ZOS employees were obviously shocked when they learned that "Blackbird" was cancelled.

The development team of Blackbird has grown to about 300 people, and the most sad thing about its cancellation is of course that a large number of employees have been unemployed or are at risk of unemployment.

Knowing that it was originally planned to be a MMO shooting game for equipment brushing will naturally make people worry, and Microsoft is obviously deeply worried and decided to give up.

Destiny 2 is currently in a slight decline, and latecomers like First Descendants are just tepid, so it takes something really special to enter the field and establish its game genre - Microsoft won't expect anything from projects of this size

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