Xbox cancels Rare's Everwild and ZeniMax's new MMORPG 'Blackbird' as part of layoffs

Multiple video game projects have been cancelled at Microsoft as the company sheds hundreds of workers from its interactive entertainment division.

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Today, Microsoft is holding mass layoffs with over 9,000 people believed to be affected. Xbox gaming is being hit with job eliminations and full-scale projects are being cancelled as part of the big cost cuts. Microsoft appears to be clearing its slate of portfolio risk in an effort to control spending, especially at a time when game budgets are spiraling out of control.

Sources have told Bloomberg's Jason Schreier that at least two games have been cancelled: Rare's Everwild, which was set in a new colorful IP and announced in 2019, and ZeniMax Online's unannounced new MMORPG, which was codenamed Blackbird and started development some 7 years ago. We had originally reported on Blackbird in 2018, just a few years after The Elder Scrolls Online had launched.

"As part of today's cuts, Xbox has canceled the troubled Rare game Everwild, according to people familiar," Schreier wrote on Bluesky.

"The new MMORPG project from ZeniMax Online Studios, maker of Elder Scrolls Online, has been canceled as part of the Xbox layoffs, sources tell Bloomberg News. The project, code-named Blackbird, had been in development since 2018."

It's unclear what other games, if any, have been affected. Specific games like State of Decay 3 and Perfect Dark may also be on the chopping block due to problematic development timelines and lack of a product release despite many years of work on each project.