
An unannounced Future-style MMO shooter beforehand in improvement at Elder Scrolls Online studio ZeniMax Online was canceled this week as a part of Microsoft’s layoff massacre, and in accordance to a brand new report, Xbox boss Phil Spencer was an enormous fan of the sport.
In accordance to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, there was a gathering in March the place Spencer had the probability to go palms on with ZeniMax’s new sport, codenamed Blackbird, and he had so much fun that Xbox head Matt Booty had to take away his controller so the assembly may proceed.
Blackbird was reportedly an internet looter shooter vaguely comparable to Future, besides with extra of a give attention to vertical exploration. In accordance to Schreier, it had one thing of a Blade Runner, sci-fi noir aesthetic and talents like wall climbing, double leaping, wall climbing, and a grappling hook gamers may use to toss themselves round skyscrapers.
(*4*)
Chances are you’ll like
Regardless of Spencer and different Xbox executives reportedly being extraordinarily impressed by Blackbird, it finally wasn’t sufficient to reserve it. ZeniMax employees reportedly weren’t given a proof for its cancelation, and longtime studio director Matt Firor departed the studio the identical day.
This week’s Microsoft layoffs impacted about 9,000 employees, or round 4% of its complete workforce. Together with Blackbird’s cancelation, Uncommon’s action-adventure sport Everwild and Xbox’s Good Darkish reboot had been canceled. Good Darkish studio The Initiative was shuttered fully and Forza studio Flip 10 misplaced about 50% of its employees.
Xbox places a bandage over its newest self-inflicted gaping wound with Helldivers 2 coming to Xbox Sequence X subsequent month – inexplicably on the identical day as Gears of Battle: Reloaded