The Elder Scrolls Online Dev's Unannounced MMO Was Doing Well and Even Scaling Up as Xbox Cancelation Blindsided Staff
The Elder Scrolls Online Dev's Unannounced MMO Was Doing Well and Even Scaling Up as Xbox Cancelation Blindsided Staff
Yesterday, amid the layoffs of around 9100 individuals at Microsoft including thousands from its Xbox Gaming Divisions, we learned that one of the impacted projects was an unannounced MMO from ZeniMax Online Studios.
Some notable quotes below:
Now, IGN has learned that the entire team for the MMO, codenamed "Blackbird," has been cut, amid layoffs that impacted several hundred individuals across the Cockeysville, MD-based ZeniMax Online Studios.
Speaking to multiple sources familiar with the project, IGN has learned that Blackbird was to be a new, sci-fi IP. Though it had been in development since 2018, the length of time it was taking to make the game was expected, as ZeniMax was building an entirely new game engine for it.
In the last year, sources tell IGN that pre-production was going well, and the team was actively ramping up in the hope of moving into full production soon. Xbox had approved the scaling up, and some individuals were being moved onto the project from other teams such as The Elder Scrolls Online, as well as some people absorbed from the shuttering last year of Arkane Austin.
At this point, I don't even know what Xbox is trying to do anymore. An MMO made by the team who made ESO and pre-production seemed to do well? Cancel that yeah!!!
If I had to take a wild guess, it's higher-ups sacking employees to get a quick payday.
Microsoft keeps buying up dev teams, promising games, and then prevents games from releasing. I have been questioning their desire to make future consoles, to be honest. It seems like they're trying to focus on gamepass and maneuvering out of the console market. Especially with their new handheld being made by a different company.
For more context, Bloomberg also reported on this:
Xbox Executives Were Blown Away by an Upcoming Game. Then They Canceled It.
No paywall version: https://archive.ph/daYYd
But Blackbird’s cancellation was particularly shocking because it had blown away executives at Xbox just a few months ago. During the demonstration in March, Spencer was enjoying the game so much that Matt Booty, the head of Xbox Game Studios, had to pull the controller away so they could keep the meeting going, according to two people who were in the room.
This is a game that even Spencer was enjoying and then they just cancelled it. I have no word.
I will play the devil advocate here, but a mmo in this economy ? Very little chance to succeed event if it's good. I'm not saying canceling it was a good call, we will never know. But I can understand that being blow away is maybe not even enough for a live service to be good.
We don't even know it's business model, they all want live service games right?
Feels strange, especially for a dev that has actually made a modern and (apparently) profitable MMO.
The MMO market is still big, just not as big as its used to. A MMO by a successful team has a much better chance than most games.
Microsoft is quickly becoming the worst company in gaming, which is saying something when you have the likes of Nintendo and EA. They bought up a bunch of quality companies making good games just to fire everyone and shut them down so their crappy flagship titles have no competition. Companies want to kill and destroy all games old, new, and even hypothetical so that their glorified slot machines get the spotlight. This is the beginning of the end for mainstream gaming. (Indie gaming is going strong though).
MORE SOULS ON THE ALTER OF THE AI GOD, you know, just a few more and it shall burst forth from the machine and solve all our problems.
Just keeeeeeep pouring resources and capital on to the fire, any day now. Don’t worry about the climate or housing prices, the inevitable AI god will solve all that, surely. All the ruined lives and destroyed careers will be worth it, promise.