The team behind The Elder Scrolls Online was working on a new game but it was canceled. Reports say it was a sci-fi looter shooter with a dark detective-style theme like a sci-fi noir. Microsoft executives were very impressed with it before it got scrapped.
This canceled game is now officially on the list of projects affected by Microsoft’s layoffs along with others like Rare’s Everwild the reboot of Perfect Dark and a mystery game from Doom creator John Romero. When the news first broke about Blackbird being canceled and the job losses at ZeniMax very little was known about the project. What we did know was that it was a brand-new game not related to ESO and it had been in development for over seven years. It was also built using a completely new game engine.
Rumors and job listings had hinted for a while that this game was probably a sci-fi MMO. Now a new report from Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier confirms those rumors and shares more behind-the-scenes details about the game. From what we’ve learned Blackbird sounded like a very promising project. If it had released it might have ended up as one of the best multiplayer games out there.
According to reporter Jason Schreier Project Blackbird was a third-person online looter-shooter kind of like Destiny. It was being made by the team behind The Elder Scrolls Online (ZeniMax Online Studios) and it was going to be part of a brand-new franchise. The game had a cool sci-fi look mixed with a dark and moody style like the movie Blade Runner. It focused a lot on fast high-up movement. Players would be able to double jump dash through the air climb walls swing with a grappling hook and move across tall buildings like superheroes.
At first Project Blackbird had a slow start. There were some technical problems and most of the team’s energy was still going into supporting Elder Scrolls Online which was doing really well. But over the last few years the game started coming together much faster and it was aiming to launch around 2028.
Earlier this year in March ZeniMax showed off a working demo of the game called a vertical slice to Microsoft executives. This small part of the game was meant to show how the final version would look and feel. According to the report Microsoft’s team was extremely impressed. Schreier even says that Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer was enjoying the demo so much that Matt Booty the head of Xbox Game Studios had to take the controller from him so they could actually continue the meeting.
This shows just how excited the top Xbox team was about the game and how promising it looked before it was sadly canceled.
Zenimax Online Studios was reportedly shocked when they found out that Project Blackbird a game they had been working on was suddenly canceled. The team was seeing fast progress and everything seemed to be going smoothly. It’s understandable why they were surprised especially after hearing about the exciting concept for the game and learning that a brand-new engine had been built specifically for it. I was also surprised when I heard about it given how promising it sounded.
The game was supposed to be a looter shooter MMO which is a popular type of game but it also comes with some challenges. Clearly Microsoft had some concerns about the game’s chances in a market that’s been tough for this genre. Destiny 2 is seeing a decline and other recent games like The First Descendant have only seen moderate success. To really succeed in this genre and stand out a game would need to be something truly special. Microsoft probably felt that Project Blackbird wouldn’t be able to do that given the expectations for a project of this size. What’s even sadder about the cancellation is that with around 300 people working on the game many of them will lose their jobs or have their future with the project uncertain.
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