Xbox's Promising MMORPG Sounds Like the Most Baffling Cancellation

Don’t get acquired by Ms… that’s the main recommendation you can give them.

I can't imagine how much this must have hurt for the developers who worked on this. Something bing taken from you after 7 years of work just like that. It being praised like that a couple of months before just make it even harder to accept. I hope they find a way to deal with this.

I would have loved to play this, but it was still in pre-production, meaning this was likely a 2030 game. It's kind of baffling how many Xbox studios appear to take years to get nowhere over and over again, it's almost Warner Bros. Levels.

It's pretty clear that Spencer and co. lost actual control of Xbox division. I mean, they are still "in charge" but people actually in charge are Nadella and Hood.

Which doesn't mean it's not Spencer's fault. He kept promising Nadella everything while failing to deliver. And now promising projects like this are paying the price with hundreds of devs being without work.

What a ***** show...

@Reeneman Don't get acquired, don't go into a publishing deal, don't put your game on their hardware at this point.

You're doing a great job. Fantastic. Incredible game. You're being promoted to customer.

By 28 that was a 10yr dev cycle.

And we are seeing games struggling to break into the live service market.

But considering MS need day 1 games for GP it’s mad that they are cancelling games

Well, what about all those assets? Will they just sit and rot because they might pick the project up again? They should reuse it and build something elseat least.

Bad management, just like Sony cancelling fractions, which was close to finish and would have been successful. They cancelled it because naughty dog didn't realize how much work it takes to maintain a live service which is stupid that they didn't know before they started development. They could have also transferred it to another external team. Just really bad management decisions at these companies.

The problem with each of the games that were cancelled is the time they have already had in development. So if a game has already had 7 years in the oven, and won't be out for another 3, we're talking 10 years in development. That's way, way too long. Remember, for each of those years, the staff are being paid, the energy bills are being paid, the office space is costing money.

It needs to be remembered that we used to get 2 or even 3 games from a developer in a single generation, we are sometimes not even getting one. In the case of this particular game, it started development during the Xbox One era, and was going to entirely skip the Series generation. It would have released on the next platform in 2028.

Ultimately what has happened here is that Microsoft Gaming have told Spencer that these, and other games also long in development such as State of Decay 3 and Fable, are taking much too long to develop, and costing way too much money. The bean-counters at Microsoft have, via Nadella, told Spencer that he needs to make cuts. He has to choose what goes, but games have to be cancelled. Thus likely as not, Spencer has cancelled those games deemed most risky, most unlikely to recoup the cost of development, and those that are the furthest from releasing. Some of the games cancelled may have fallen foul of each of those potential reasons. I think given the choice, Spencer would not have cancelled any of these projects because he has often spoken about given developers the time that they need. Unfortunately for him, the oversight from Nadella is such that that is not a luxury he can afford those that develop games at Xbox any longer...

I get what you are saying, @Medic_alert. I really do. And I agree! However, it isn't just Microsoft that are doing this. Remember that Sony are also cancelling games left and right. There have been many just this generation, including 10 different live-service games. It's a problem right across the industry, just look at Ubisoft, for example. It comes down to the lengthy development times we are seeing these days, and also the often unreasonable expectations of just how much profits a game should make...

"I love the game.... proceeds to cancel it"

Without taking a risk on innovation, the industry will stagnate.

@Frmknst Tbf they already have a bunch of good games releasing this year. 2025 is the first year in ages were Microsoft has a solid first-party lineup, even if most of it isn't exclusive

@Bunchesopuppies I would argue that there has still been innovation in some genres.

As a gamer who plays ESO daily, I was looking forward to this game. Doesn’t make sense to me!

I agree, @Medic_alert, I guess is the hope that history does not repeat itself, and that Nadella does not gut Xbox to the point that it needs to go on another buying spree...

@DonkeyFantasy Indie devs have been killing it the last couple of years. But to be fair the comment I was replying to just said "industry", I would still say AAA have made some strides (very rare).

Maybe they got spooked by Sony's live service push/failure.

Microsoft seem to just want completely safe bets at this point.

Any updates on that Blade game? I wouldn't be surprised to see that get canned next.

The weirdest thing about this one is that this game was the reason resources shifted away from ESO, a major money maker. While I get that Microsoft may have PTSD from Bungie, which if you haven’t done your homework please do, this is from a studio that is very consistent with budgeting. I’m again marvelling at the degree of mismanagement, it almost feels like Microsoft didn’t have the money to pour into game development that they claim to.

"It was a new franchise and a live-service game entering an oversaturated market during a time when many other live-service titles have flopped. The team was also building a brand-new engine for the game while making it, which created a number of challenges."

Listen, I'm not here to justify cancellations and layoffs. But I think Schreier does a good job here explaining why the cancellation isn't so baffling. New IP, expensive, for an oversaturated market — risky in a lot of ways. Maybe it could've become a massive success, but it was far from guaranteed; I can see why execs got cold feet regardless of internal praise.

That sounds very cool, shame it won’t ever come to pass. ESO had a rocky start but they’ve totally nailed the expansions for almost a decade now.

Live service trash being cancelled all over the place. Executives finally realising that the public don’t need 100 different variations of the same game. People playing a popular live service game are entrenched and won’t easily move.

No one would have bought it anyway.

Two gens now of XBOX flailing and missing over and over again. Hey they got their hands in a lot of pockets, monthly, though, and that's what matters. I'm done.

Looter-shooter live service. We don't lose much with the cancellation.

Microsoft just don't know how to run things as a publisher. They should just set the budget at the start, give them a 3-year timeframe and let them get to work.

It is unfortunate, if said of good and appealing why not? It wouldn't be my thing but business wise it is strange. IF they liked it and it had enough going for it was it worth it or was it too big and they went whelp time to cut enough to make margins look good.

Other projects seemed like side studios to cut the ends off of, otherwise ones with new projects and them like Tango they just go nah drop the newly started projects/funding as at least they aren't that far in and don't work out. Which I mean fair but even still.

Cutting ties/letting them go is one thing but laying them off is very much another.

Also what about all the HR/other staff they didn't need? Couldn't they have just been let off not just everyone. Or odd staff roles that didn't need to exist (which some did pretty sure).

I get the amount of live service games they have being WOW, Sea of Thieves, Fallout 76 and Elder Scrolls Online but they need something else, it can't just be ESO/Fallout all the time. If they slip, what will replace it?