Microsoft's Xbox and PC exclusive Pentiment will make its way to PS5 and Nintendo Switch, alongside the previously-leaked Hi-Fi Rush.
25.01.2024 - 18:23 / techradar.com / Matt Booty
Following the news that Microsoft is laying off around 1,900 people from its video game workforce, there is further confirmation that a survival game that was in the works over at Blizzard Entertainment has now been canceled.
“Today’s actions affect multiple teams within Blizzard, including development teams, shared service organizations, and corporate functions,” Matt Booty, head of Xbox Studios, said in a note to staff (verified by TechRadar Gaming). “As part of this focus, Blizzard is ending development on its survival game project and will be shifting some of the people working on it to one of several promising new projects Blizzard has in the early stages of development.”
In a statement shared with TechRadar Gaming, a Microsoft spokesperson said: «We will share more about the status of upcoming games, services, and partnerships in the future.»
The upcoming survival game was announced in 2022 and was set to be the first new game released by Blizzard since Overwatchback in 2016. In early 2022, Blizzard released a small snippet of the survival game on <a data-analytics-id=«inline-link» href=«https://twitter.com/Blizzard_Ent/status/1486038723468795906?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1486038723468795906%7Ctwgr%5E23d7cf5db6c8f3574476b43bba2f95c8815791d0%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2F2022%2F1%2F25%2F22901146%2Factivision-blizzard-new-survival-game-announcement» target="_blank" data-url=«https://twitter.com/Blizzard_Ent/status/1486038723468795906?ref_src=» https:>Twitter/ X
, describing it as «an all-new universe.»«A place full of heroes we have yet to meet, stories yet to be told, and adventures yet to be lived,» a blog post described. «A vast realm of possibility, waiting to be explored.»
«For thirty years, Blizzard has been creating universes for millions of players around the globe. This requires a diverse team of developers willing to lend their voices, to listen, and to be heard. That is our mission.»
The blog post also advertised various job positions on this now-canceled project; these included a lead artist and several design and programming jobs. It's a shame that what looked like an exciting new project will now likely never see the light of day.
If you're searching for more worlds to explore then check out the best survival games and the best story games which are available to play right now.
Microsoft's Xbox and PC exclusive Pentiment will make its way to PS5 and Nintendo Switch, alongside the previously-leaked Hi-Fi Rush.
Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment are the first two Xbox games to launch on rival consoles, according to The Verge.
Microsoft will share an update on the Xbox business later this week, the company confirmed Monday after weeks of reports and rumours of its first-party games coming to rival consoles. The Xbox parent will reveal its plans for the platform in a special edition of the Official Xbox Podcast on February 15 at 12pm PT (February 16, 1.30am IST in India), where Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, Xbox president Sarah Bond and Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty will share details about the future Xbox roadmap. The confirmation comes after Spencer had promised last Tuesday that Microsoft would share its vision for the “future of Xbox” next week.
Microsoft has announced a special edition of the Official Xbox Podcast for February 15th, noon PT. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, president Sarah Bond and Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty will be present and provide “updates on the Xbox business.” Last week, Spencer said this would be a business update event to discuss the company’s “vision for Xbox’s future.”
Microsoft's gaming top brass are expected to lay out their plans to publish some Xbox games on PlayStation and Nintendo platforms via a business update released this week as a podcast.
Microsoft has confirmed plans to deliver its eagerly awaited Xbox business update on February 15.
Chinese developer Kuro Game has released new information about its upcoming game, Wuthering Waves, confirming the game's second beta test and PlayStation versions. Kuro Game first announced the game in 2022 as a new action RPG with many fans drawing comparisons to Genshin Impact with its fast-paced and fluid combat. Early trailers saw Wuthering Waves showcase similar gameplay to «hack-and-slash» games, putting an emphasis on difficulty and timing with the players' inputs. Now, excited fans are set to learn more about the game with its second closed beta test.
The developer of upcoming Genshin Impact-like Wuthering Waves says it's rewritten 90% of its story ahead of the RPG's second closed beta.
Blizzard Entertainment's survival game, which it informally announced in 2022, was reportedly canceled over engine issues during its six years of development, according to a new Bloomberg report. This report follows yesterday's news that Microsoft is laying off 1,900 employees across its Xbox, Activision Blizzard, and ZeniMax divisions. Alongside this news, Blizzard president Mike Ybarra also announced he was departing from the company, and we learned the aforementioned survival game had been canceled.
Fresh details about Blizzard’s cancelled survival game have been revealed.
In early 2023, it was revealed that Blizzard had been working on a completely brand-new survival game based on an original IP. It was later rumored that the game would be called Odyssey and would feature a "cartoony" art style similar to that of Overwatch. It was all very exciting, especially since Activision Blizzard is almost allergic to experimenting with new IP these days, but unfortunately, we'll never actually get to play Odyssey.
Blizzard's unannounced survival game has been canceled after spending more than half a decade in development. The move, which is bound to disappoint many of the company's fans, stems from Microsoft's massive layoffs that were disclosed earlier today.