Project Blackbird cancellation still hurts as former ZeniMax Online boss calls it a missed Xbox chance

Project Blackbird may never reach players, but the cancelled ZeniMax Online game is still raising questions about what Xbox lost.

Former ZeniMax Online Studios head Matt Firor has now spoken more openly about the project, saying he believes its cancellation was a “missed opportunity” for ZeniMax, Bethesda, Xbox, and gaming as a whole.

Firor is not a small name in this story. He helped build ZeniMax Online and led the studio for 18 years. He was also behind The Elder Scrolls Online, a game that has survived for years through regular updates and a loyal player base. His view matters because he was close to Project Blackbird and saw the work that went into it.

Project Blackbird sounds like the kind of risky online game Xbox needed, but the cost may have been too big to ignore

Speaking to MinnMax, Firor said he was proud of what the team made, even though the game was cancelled before the public could play it. He also said he understood the business reason behind the decision, even if he did not agree with it.

That is the difficult part of this story. Project Blackbird was not cancelled because it was clearly a bad idea. According to Firor, it became a very large bet at a time when the games industry was becoming more cautious. The project had high front-loaded costs, and Xbox eventually treated it as a number on a ledger that needed closer review.

Project Blackbird was reportedly a third-person online shooter set on Soteria, a tidally locked planet with harsh environments. Players would have become Revenants, bio-enhanced operatives working for alien syndicates. The story would have involved crime, corporate power, and a murder conspiracy.

The cancellation also had a personal cost. Firor said he felt especially sad for the team, which was hit by the news unexpectedly. He later left the studio, and he previously confirmed that his departure was directly connected to the cancellation.

For Xbox, this is another example of the tension between creative ambition and financial control. The company needs big, unique games if it wants to rebuild excitement around its platform. At the same time, large online projects are expensive, risky, and hard to guarantee. If a project takes years before launch, the pressure only grows.

That is what makes Project Blackbird so interesting. It could have given Xbox a new science-fiction online franchise from the studio that kept The Elder Scrolls Online alive for years. It may not have been guaranteed to succeed, but it sounded different enough to stand out.

Now, ZeniMax Online has refocused on The Elder Scrolls Online. That is safer, and it makes business sense. But Firor’s comments show that Project Blackbird was not just another cancelled codename. For the people who built it, it was a real game with real promise.

Xbox may have made the decision it felt was necessary. Still, if Project Blackbird was as strong as Firor believes, its cancellation could be remembered as one of those choices that made sense on paper but left a creative gap behind.