The Elder Scrolls Online Dev's Unannounced MMO Was Doing Well and Even Scaling Up as Xbox Cancelation Blindsided Staff, Sources Say - IGN
www.ign.com
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!!!

  • megopie@beehaw.orgEnglish
    7·
    2 days ago

    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.