ZeniMax's cancelled Blackbird MMO was highly praised during playtesting, executives loved it

Reports indicate that ZeniMax Online's cancelled MMORPG codenamed 'Blackbird' was a well-liked superstar among testers and even management.

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Yesterday, Microsoft laid off a multitude of workers across all branches of the company, including the Xbox division. Microsoft shuttered The Initiative game studio, cancelled projects, and laid off employees that were part of various teams working on billion-dollar franchises like Candy Crush, Call of Duty, Halo, and Forza.

One of the cancelled games was ZeniMax's new unannounced MMORPG project codenamed 'Blackbird,' which had started development in 2018. Based on recent reports, this cut may have come as a surprise because the game was highly favored by everyone who saw it and/or played it. ZeniMax studio director, Matt Firor, announced he was leaving the company shortly after Microsoft announced its layoffs and cancellations.

The report on what 'Blackbird' actually was comes by way of Gaming Leaks and Rumors user SneakerSO, whose comments have been corroborated by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier.

According to SneakerSO, ZeniMax's 'Blackbird' was essentially one of the most beloved games that was being playtested at Xbox.

When it begins to come out just how fucking incredible the title he was working on was that got axed today.

That game had some of the best reactions from folks who played it as playtest for an MP-focused title that i'd heard from in years. It takes an absolute truck load to have folks heap praise on an MP playtest in modern times. This game would've been spectacular.

Edit:

Typically, in situations where publicly-known games get cancelled, theres this sense in the fanbase of 'the thing we didn't get might've been so incredible', and finger-pointing amongst execs who just didn't get it. FOMO and all that. Well, this is one of the cancelled games that, by literally every account, sounded like it would've been a slam dunk in literally every sense. Felt like I should make an edit to clarify a little further.

Schreier, for his part, said:

"I think the general public might have said "not another looter shooter" but we're not just talking about QA testers here, we're talking about MS execs being blown away by it. And this isn't a project like Perfect Dark or Everwild where it was in development hell."