By The Initiative has been shut down as a result
- by Fraser Gilbert & Ben Kerry
News about the Xbox layoffs continues to trickle in today, and these latest reports have left us pretty speechless – they say that both a new ZeniMax MMORPG and the Perfect Dark reboot (!) have now been cancelled.
The ZeniMax game was being made by the Elder Scrolls Online team, and Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier mentioned in his report that it was codenamed “Blackbird” and had been in development since 2018.
Meanwhile, rumours of Perfect Dark’s cancellation began circling earlier today, and it’s now been reported by Windows Central that the game has indeed been cancelled – and its main developer The Initiative also shut down as a result of this cancellation.
The Perfect Dark reboot was first announced back in late 2020, and we saw a really promising clip of gameplay at least year’s Xbox Games Showcase. Now, suddenly, it’s seemingly been cancelled and will never see the light of day after all.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news here… but these aren’t the only Xbox games that have been cancelled amid Xbox layoffs today! Rare’s Everwild, which has seemingly been trapped in development hell for the past six years, has also apparently been canned at the UK studio.
This is an awful situation not only for fans of these games, but for everyone involved in making them. We wish the best to everyone that’s been affected, and here’s hoping we’re not going to find out about any other cancellations today.
What are your thoughts on this situation? Let us know down in the comments section below.
[source windowscentral.com]
Fraser is the News Editor at Pure Xbox, where he spends his time reporting on the biggest stories in the world of Xbox and beyond.