Jason Schreier explains in Bloomberg that Blackbird was a shooter-looter In the third person whose development team was formed in 2018. At the beginning the project faced some technical challenges and was in the background due to the success of The Elder Scrolls Online, but during the last years its development had progressed and the team was composed of some 300 people. Last March some Xbox executives with Phil Spencer in front tested Blackbird, and according to two of those present they were delighted. Moreover, they say that Spencer had to remove command from the hands to be able to follow the meeting.
Three months after satisfying Xbox managers, someone has decided to cancel Blackbird. The developers knew anything until the same morning that the layoffs were announced and the team was stunned. No one received an explanation about the Blackbird cancellation. Perhaps in Xbox they saw it too risky because it was a high -budget project with a new graphic engine and whose launch was planned for 2028. In addition, it was going to compete in the complicated segment of the games as a service where many have failed, but where Zenimax Online Studios has experience and has achieved success.
What kind of game was Blackbird?
According to True Achievements, whose information largely coincides with that offered by Bloomberg, Blackbird was a mixture between Destiny, Blade Runner and Horizon Zero Dawn. Both media talk about a shooter In the third person of science fiction and Noir style where the movement was one of the protagonists. Players could use skills such as double jump, resort to a hook or climb the walls. The story was set in Soteria, a planet that on the one hand is burned by the sun and another ice covered. Between both regions there was a habitable area called The Twilight Band.
Exodus, the capital of Soteria, is controlled by a called bread that is responsible for keeping everything under control. The Stratified Exodus society has alien syndicates as a government, while Revennts are improved humans who exercise neutral force to maintain balance. In Blackbird the players were going to put themselves in the skin of a Revenant that completes missions and is part of activities. These unions were designed to be a faction system (as we have already seen in other Bethesda Game Studios games) and each of them had their own characteristics.
The main story of Blackbird revolved around resolving a murder executed in a human district to restore order in Exodus. As the campaign advanced, players could explore the city and complete, at the request of the union or bread, missions or activities to get rewards in groups of up to four participants. Also planned by missions called Strike where the group could be up to six players. In addition, there were secondary missions and great events. Although Blackbird was focused on the cooperative game and the shared world, I was not going to give up the JCJ.
Among the characteristics of Blackbird we also had a class or archetype system, totally customizable characters, both in appearance and in play style, and with a personality that was defined as progress was made in the campaign, made decisions and interacted with other characters. And how could it be otherwise because we are facing a shooterArsenal was generous and composed of customizable and improvable weapons. There were also drones and vehicles.
The idea of Zenimax Online Studios was to maintain Blackbird with weekly, monthly and quarterly events, in a structure similar to that now has The Elder Scrolls online. It was also planned to expand its narrative and world adding new chapters for history and zones. However, Blackbird is now a canceled game, just like Everwild from Rare.