Footage leaks from cancelled Xbox game which ‘blew away’ Microsoft execs

Two minutes of impressive in-engine footage has leaked from Project Blackbird, which was cancelled by Xbox last year.

Microsoft has cancelled several games over the past year, including Perfect Dark and Everwild, but one of the most promising titles was never officially announced.

ZeniMax Online Studios, creators of The Elder Scrolls Online, were working on Project Blackbird until July last year. In reports, the massive multiplayer online (MMO) title was described as a sci-fi ‘third person, online looter shooter’ slated for 2028.

According to a Bloomberg report, Blackbird’s cancellation came as a surprise to the studio, because it had ‘blown away executives at Xbox’ a few months prior. It’s claimed Microsoft Gaming CEO, Phil Spencer, was enjoying the game so much that Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, ‘had to pull the controller away so they could keep the meeting going’.

Several months later, footage from the title has leaked online, and while it doesn’t show any gameplay, it does look impressive.

The footage appeared online via insider eXtas1s, with Insider Gaming corroborating its legitimacy. According to reports, the two-minute clip was used internally at ZeniMax to showcase the game’s lighting in Unreal Engine 4.

It’s hard to gauge how it would work in action, with all the characters idly standing around, but the Blade Runner-esque sci-fi setting looks polished. But it looks reminiscent of Coruscant from Star Wars, mixed with Ghostrunner, while also being suspiciously reminiscent of the cancelled Prey 2.

Microsoft hasn’t given any reason for the cancellation of Blackbird, but the game’s director, Matt Firor, announced his departure from the studio at the same time. In post on Bluesky earlier this month, Firor confirmed his exit was due to the game’s cancellation.

‘Answering the second-most common question – about what led my leaving [Zenimax Online Studios] – the most obvious explanation is the correct one,’ Firor wrote. ‘Project Blackbird was the game I had waited my entire career to create, and having it cancelled led to my resignation.’

According to Bloomberg, Blackbird had a ‘heavy emphasis on vertical movement’, and saw players use abilities like double jumping, air-dashing, a grappling hook, and wall climbing ‘to fling themselves around tall buildings like superheroes’.

While we won’t ever see Blackbird in a complete state, Xbox does have a promising slate for 2026, between Halo: Campaign Evolved, Forza Horizon 6, Fable, and Gears Of War: E-Day.

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