Nearly six months ago, Microsoft held a round of significant layoffs, hitting employee personnel at Xbox-owned studios, including King and ZeniMax. It led to several game cancellations, among them Everwild at Rare, the Perfect Dark reboot taking place at The Initiative and Project Blackbird, an MMO project from ZeniMax.
At the time, not much was known about Project Blackbird, aside from its lengthy development timeline (it had been in development since 2018). However, now via a new leak, we have our first look at what could've been had Project Blackbird continued onward.
The leaked footage, which was shared on social media by typically reliable insider eXtas1s, has been corroborated by Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson.
Totaling two minutes in length, it depicts a futuristic, cyberpunk-like world, complete with loads of neon. Although it lacks gameplay, it does showcase some character design, including some heavily-suited soldiers. There's a significant sense of verticality, with the footage going from the middle of the level, all the way to the bottom and then back up again, each of those levels filled with different elements.
After a week of unprecedented layoffs and project cancellations, Xbox's Phil Spencer stands at the centre...
