Matt Firor based Zenimax On-line in 2007 and helped Bethesda shepherd The Elder Scrolls On-line into one of many premier MMORPGs on the market. He left abruptly final summer season when Microsoft laid off dozens on the studio amid a wider massacre on the firm and canceled the upcoming on-line multiplayer recreation he and others had been engaged on, Project Blackbird. He not too long ago broke his silence on the rationale for his departure, confirming what followers had lengthy suspected.
“Project Blackbird was the game I had waited my entire career to create, and having it canceled led to my resignation,” Firor wrote in a January 1 publish on LinkedIn which he later shared on Bluesky. “My heart and thoughts are always with the impacted team members, many of whom I had worked 20+ years with, and all of whom were the most dedicated, amazingly talented group of developers in the industry.”
The publish by no means mentions Microsoft immediately and doesn’t take goal on the resolution makers at Xbox, which acquired Zenimax On-line in 2021, however the transfer clearly left a really unhealthy style in lots of veteran builders’ mouths. A few of Firor’s former colleagues went on to kind Sackbird Studios to work on their very own multiplayer recreation. “With internal funding and full creative control, the studio is focused on crafting bold, character-driven experiences free from corporate compromises,” they wrote last year.
Bloomberg reported that Blackbird was an bold loot shooter that combined components of Future and Blade Runner with the construction and questlines of an MMORPG. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer reportedly performed a construct of the sport final March and cherished what he noticed, making its eventual cancelation much more perplexing. The layoffs and cuts got here as Xbox recreation studios had been reportedly tasked with attaining a controversial 30-percent revenue margin regardless of being compelled to make all of their video games playable at no cost on Recreation Move.
