ZeniMax Founder Confirms He Resigned From The Studio Because Microsoft Cancelled Project Blackbird
Jack Coleman (He/Him) is a News Editor from Ireland. This is his third full year in games media, having previously worked freelance for various outlets, including DualShockers and NME.
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Zenimax Online Studios founder Matt Firor has finally revealed the reason for his resignation from his position at the studio six months ago. In a post on LinkedIn, Firor confirmed everyone’s theory was correct and explained his relationship with the numerous independent studios that have emerged in the wake of last year’s Zenimax layoffs.
“Right off the top — and to answer the most common question I get — I am not directly involved in any of the projects that have been spun up by former members of the ZOS team. I am advising some of them informally, but I am not leading them. They are in good hands with their respective leaders, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with,” writes Firor.
One of these new teams is Sackbird Studios, named for a clever combination of the act of being fired (or laid-off) and the cancelled Project Blackbird that many of the team members were working on before its untimely cancellation by Xbox.
Project Blackbird s Cancellation Crushed Firor
“Answering the second-most common question — about what led my leaving ZOS — the most obvious explanation is the correct one. Project Blackbird was the game I had waited my entire career to create, and having it cancelled led to my resignation. My heart and thoughts are always with the impacted team members, many of whom I worked 20+ years with, and all of whom were the most dedicated, amazingly talented group of developers in the industry.”
Firor goes on to say that he now enjoys Elder Scrolls Online as “an anonymous community member” and says it’s been a “refreshing and fun” change of perspective on the game.
Project Blackbird has never had an official reveal, but Zenimax did confirm the project’s existence in 2022 and added that 200 developers from the studio had been assigned to develop the game.
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Xbox head Phil Spencer reportedly “couldn’t put the game down” when he played a version of the game in March 2024. Despite Spencer’s enthusiasm, the project was unexpectedly cancelled a few months later, along with Perfect Dark and Rare’s Everwild.
We still don’t know much about the cancelled project, besides that it was going to have a science fiction setting, and several people familiar with the project were impressed by what they’d seen.
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