Yesterday, amid the layoffs of round 9,100 workers at Microsoft together with 1000’s from its Xbox Gaming Divisions, we realized that one of many impacted initiatives was an unannounced MMO from ZeniMax Online Studios.
Now, IGN has realized that your complete group for the MMO, codenamed “Blackbird,” has been minimize, amid layoffs that impacted a number of hundred people throughout the Cockeysville, MD-based ZeniMax Online Studios.
Talking to a number of sources acquainted with the mission, IGN has realized that Blackbird was to be a brand new, sci-fi IP. Although it had been in growth since 2018, the size of time it was taking to make the sport was anticipated, as ZeniMax was constructing a wholly new recreation engine for it.
Within the final yr, sources inform IGN that pre-production was going properly, and the group was actively ramping up within the hope of shifting into full manufacturing quickly. Xbox had authorized the scaling up, and some people had been being moved onto the mission from different groups such as The Elder Scrolls Online, as properly as some folks absorbed from the shuttering final yr of Arkane Austin.
One supply recalled being informed final yr by head of Xbox Recreation Studios Matt Booty in a gathering that Xbox’s closures of Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and Alpha Canine Video games had been accomplished for the aim of justifying elevated headcount for different recreation studios that wanted it, together with ZeniMax Online Studios.
However now, each particular person engaged on Blackbird is gone. The mission has been cancelled, and ZeniMax Online Studios head Matt Firor has stepped down. Sources IGN spoke to stated that these inside ZeniMax solely knew that layoffs had been coming attributable to ongoing information studies main as much as yesterday, however even immediately are nonetheless at the hours of darkness as to how widespread the cuts really are. Additionally they confirmed studies that a lot of folks’s Slack entry was deactivated earlier than they had been informed by HR that they had been impacted, leading to confusion and misery.
Microsoft’s mass layoffs have devastated its video games division, and our understanding of the impression continues to be evolving. IGN was informed that Sweet Crush developer King was hit arduous, and we realized yesterday that Good Darkish has been canceled and The Initiative isn’t any extra. In the meantime, Everwild has been canceled at Uncommon and veteran Uncommon designer Gregg Mayles is leaving the corporate, and Blizzard’s Warcraft Rumble is winding down. Brenda and John Romero additionally introduced this morning that Xbox has pulled funding from their mission, leaving its future unsure. Various different video games and groups are rumored to be impacted as properly, although the total scope continues to be unknown.
This comes on the heels of Microsoft’s shedding 1,900 workers in January 2024, closing Redfall developer Arkane Austin and Hello-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks months later, shedding 650 extra people in gaming the next September, and then in Could of this yr Microsoft shedding an extra 6,000 folks.
Picture credit score: zenimaxonline.com.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You could find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Acquired a narrative tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.