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The Elder Scrolls Online Dev's Unannounced MMO Was Doing Well and Even Scaling Up as Xbox Cancelation Blindsided Staff (www.ign.com)

submitted 22 hours ago by sculd@beehaw.org to c/gaming@beehaw.org

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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!!!

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[–] sculd@beehaw.org 14 points 21 hours ago (7 children)

For more context, Bloomberg also reported on this:

Xbox Executives Were Blown Away by an Upcoming Game. Then They Canceled It.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-07-03/microsoft-s-xbox-cancels-blackbird-an-upcoming-game-that-impressed-executives

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.

[–] Manapany@jlai.lu 1 points 20 hours ago (6 children)

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.

[–] Midnitte@beehaw.org 4 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

I mean, WoW still chugging along - it makes so much money from cosmetics they could probably ditch the subscription fee...

[–] Manapany@jlai.lu 0 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah and good job trying to compete with that !

[–] Midnitte@beehaw.org 2 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Well Microsoft owns Blizzard, so I guess they don't really need to compete

[–] Manapany@jlai.lu 0 points 16 hours ago

Of course they compete even if they are the same company. For a game to be profitable it need to attract consumers if you take it from another of your product that not good. Even more reason to shut it down imo. Why bother create a new IP a new community and risking to loose big, when you can put resources on your other product that already have that.

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