Zenimax Looter Shooter Felt Like Blade Runner Now Cancelled

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It emerged yesterday that Microsoft is planning to cut approximately 9,000 roles across its diverse business units, among them the Xbox gaming division.

Not only were there layoffs, but we also saw studio shutdowns and game cancellations as well.

Among the shelved initiatives, there’s a ZeniMax undertaking named “Blackbird” that left Xbox executives quite impressed during its previous unveiling.

ZeniMax Blackbird Project Now Canned Despite Impressing Xbox Boss

According to a Bloomberg report (which requires a subscription), one of the shelved initiatives involved ZeniMax Online’s Blackbird project. It’s important to note that ZeniMax, the corporation that owns Bethesda, is known for creating the popular MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online.

The intriguing aspect about the cancelation of this game is that it was allegedly demonstrated to Xbox executives, including Microsoft’s gaming chief Phil Spencer, just this past March, and garnered exceptional praise.

Apart from this, there are reports that when Spencer played the demo of the project, he became so engrossed in the game that Matt Booty, the leader of Xbox Game Studios, had to take the controller away from him to continue the meeting, as confirmed by two individuals present at the gathering.

Without a doubt, the news that Blackbird was being indefinitely postponed left developers stunned – essentially meaning it had been canceled.

According to the report, although Blackbird encountered some technical issues and took a long time to develop, it was advancing well. This is why it came as a shock to employees when they learned that Blackbird was among the projects being discontinued by Microsoft.

Although we don’t have any gameplay videos yet, Blackbird is described as a third-person multiplayer loot-shooter game, much like Bungie’s Destiny series. It’s rumored to have a futuristic film noir style reminiscent of Blade Runner, and it focuses heavily on navigating vertically. The movement system includes features such as double jumping, air dashing, and the use of a grappling hook for wall climbing.

It wasn’t explained why Blackbird was cancelled, but it could be because the project was financially demanding for Microsoft and carried a significant risk due to being a live-service game. To illustrate the costliness of such projects, let’s take Sony’s abandoned live-service shooter Concord as an example – it’s notorious in gaming circles, albeit not positively so.

Here’s another illustration of the challenge in delivering a successful live-service game: Electronic Arts’ Anthem, initially praised by both gamers and critics at its unveiling, struggled to gain traction, and will be closing its servers prematurely, beginning early next year.

A steady stream of unfavorable reports about Xbox has been emerging consistently, with today’s revelation being that Microsoft is allegedly attempting to substitute human developers from Halo Studios with artificial intelligence.

For Xbox enthusiasts, there’s some positive news: After much anticipation, Sony has decided to bring Helldivers 2 to the Xbox Series X|S, set for release in August.

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2025-07-04 05:08