Xbox’s Canceled MMORPG Project Blackbird Footage Leaks Online

Canceled titles are just a harsh reality of the gaming industry, with plenty of high-profile titles falling apart somewhere along the way towards release. While there are plenty of potential reasons for this type of turn of events, one of the most heartbreaking is when it comes from the corporate level instead of the developers. That’s what happened to more than a few titles last year when Microsoft Gaming shuttered several of the small developers and projects that fell under their umbrella.

Perhaps the most intriguing of these cancellations was Project Blackbird, the informal title for a new sci-fi MMO from the team that brought Elder Scrolls Online to players. Now, gamers are getting a small taste of what the game could have been, thanks to a short video leak that indicates the sci-fi visual aesthetic that would have been present in the game. Here’s what we know about Project Blackbird and what it could have become.

What Was Project Blackbird, And What Happened To It?

When Microsoft went through a series of layoffs and studio closures in 2025, several games were cancelled. This included Project Blackbird, an upcoming MMO from ZeniMax. Entering development in 2018 with a team that included veterans of Fallout 76 and Doom, little was known about Project Blackbird, including if that was just a working title. The game was reportedly set for a 2028 release date and had apparently been moving along at a nice enough clip that Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer had to have the controller taken away to keep him from playing.

However, the game was among those shuttered last year, prompting developers like Matt Frior to resign from the company. While some have gone on to open their own studio, Sackbird, Frior has been open about the disappointment he still feels about the project falling apart. Now, gamers are getting a taste of what Project Blackbird could have been like, thanks to a leaked video released online. While it’s not exactly a full demo of what ZeniMax had been working on, it does illuminate what they spent years working on.

What Does The Project Blackbird Leak Include?

Running two minutes in length, the leaked footage of Project Blackbird indicates that it could have been a direct competitor to games like Cyberpunk 2077. The footage is solely an exploration of the game envrioment, with little indication of what the story, characters, or gameplay would have been like. The game would have seemingly been set in a cyberpunk future, with armored soldiers patrolling an urban envrioment and aliens milling around the streets.

At one point, someone can be seen speaking with an alien vendor at a gun booth, suggesting the game would have been firmly planted in the sci-fi setting and that combat would have likely been a major element of the title. The neon-lit urban sprawl notably had multiple levels, suggesting players would have been able to explore the world from different levels, with a likely class system playing into the planned narrative that sees authorities investigating a diverse clash of cultures.

Why It’s So Frustrating That Project Blackbird Never Reached Gamers

The loss of Project Blackbird is a disappointing one for gamers and developers alike, especially in light of how the game could have benefited from the team behind Elder Scrolls Online taking all that experience in a fresh direction. While the game would have faced some stiff competition both as a sci-fi title and in the MMO space, the early proof of concept paints an interesting picture of a world where players contend with the authorities and aliens alike. The game had spent years in development, and clearly meant a lot to Matt Firor, the former Elder Scrolls Online director who left ZeniMax after helping found the studio nearly twenty years ago.

“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 post published on multiple social media platforms. It’s clear that Firor and his team believed in Project Blackbird, and that it had developed far enough along that testers at Microsoft were internally able to share the title. No formal reason has been given for the cancellation, making it all the more frustrating. It’s a shame that the game will now seemingly never be finished, giving it a chance to prove itself one way or the other.