In addition to Uncommon’s Everwild, it seems one other canceled recreation at Xbox from the newest spherical of restructuring is an extended-in-improvement MMORPG from ZeniMax Online Studios.
According to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, Microsoft has canceled “Blackbird,” the codename for the challenge from makers of The Elder Scrolls Online. Schreier mentioned the sport had been in improvement since 2018. No different particulars in regards to the challenge had been revealed.
“As one illustration of simply how sloppy and chaotic right now’s mass Xbox layoff has been, some staff at Zenimax Online Studios are actually watching their Slack accounts abruptly get locked out. No message from HR, no phrase on whether or not they nonetheless have a job, simply an ominous Slack deactivation,” Schreier added.
On July 2, Microsoft confirmed mass layoffs throughout the corporate affecting 1000’s of individuals, together with employees at Xbox. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer claimed in a memo to employees that the cuts had been essential to propel Xbox ahead to a wholesome future.
“Our platform, {hardware}, and recreation roadmap have by no means appeared stronger,” Spencer mentioned, including that Xbox was solely in a position to get to this place as a result of a number of the “robust choices” it made beforehand.
He is seemingly referring to the earlier rounds of mass layoffs and studio closures at Xbox over time. For this newest string of cuts, it does not seem there have been any outright studio closures as of Wednesday morning.
As for Uncommon’s Everwild, the sport was introduced in 2019 and reportedly underwent a number of reboots over the course of its improvement main as much as its reported cancellation. Preserve checking again with GameSpot for the newest on any further information to return from Microsoft’s newest wave of cutbacks.