Amid reports of layoffs across all of Microsoft, Blizzard Entertainment has reportedly canceled its in-development survival game as well.
I wouldn’t blame you if you weren’t aware or had forgotten such a project was in the works. Blizzard announced it two years ago with nothing but some concept art and confirmation of a console and PC release. The main reason for its announcement seemed to be to attract new talent to work on the project. This past October, there were theories of it launching in 2027, but Blizzard never shared any real info on the game.
Sadly, it seems we’ll never know what it would have looked or played like since, after being in development for six years, Blizzard has ceased development according to The Verge. This comes alongside the upcoming departures of Blizzard president Mike Ybarra and chief design officer Allen Adham, who were announced to be leaving earlier today on Jan. 25.
This also comes amid reports of Microsoft laying off almost 2,000 employees within its gaming workforce, which includes people within Blizzard. Microsoft’s game content and studios president Matt Booty has said, in an internal memo to staff shared by The Verge, some of those who were working on Blizzard’s survival game will be shifted onto “one of several promising new projects Blizzard has in the early stages of development.”
While any game being canned is always a shame, apparently it still wasn’t anywhere close to coming out. In a brief ResetEra post, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier said as much, while also suggesting the game’s title was Odyssey. He added there will be “more soon,” so expect to hear some new information about the game in the coming days.
As for Blizzard’s future projects, it doesn’t really have anything that it’s formally announced. Currently, the company is still regularly updating its ongoing titles, such as Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4, though future work is bound to be tougher following the recent layoffs.
