Blizzard Shuts Down Development for Unannounced Survival Game Amid Microsoft Layoff

Activision Blizzard canceled the development of an unannounced survival game that has been under work for over half a decade. 

The shutdown came in after Microsoft announced it laid off 1,900 employees from the gaming divisions.

(Photo : Blizzard Entertainment)

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Blizzard Cancels Upcoming Survival Game for PC, Consoles

In 2022, Blizzard announced a new survival game was coming and had invented developers to work on the game. Despite being revealed two years ago, it is safe to say that it has been under development for a much longer time than that. 

The LinkedIn profile of project director Craig Amai revealed that the company might have been working on it for about six and a half years. Those years are mainly spent on pre-production and hiring employees to increase the pace. 

However, a recent report showed that the project, under the codename "Odyssey" was many years away from completion. While it is common for AAA games to take a long time to finish, Blizzard's survival game might have been suffering during its development. 

Blizzard Game Developers Bid Farewell 

Since the project is now canceled, many developers are finding themselves out of jobs after a long time. For instance, the game's former associate narrative director Matt London shared that he's been laid off along with others from the Survival team. 

Other notable Blizzard survival developers have also announced their departures like senior concept artist Marby Kwong, gameplay programmer Michale Dale, and producer Megan Embree who has been in the company for 13 years. 

Meanwhile, Amai tried to boost the Survival team's morale by posting on LinkedIn, recommending the crew get hired by other companies due to their immense talents. 

"If you're looking for talent, the crew coming out of the Unannounced Survival Game are abnormally high quality-I cannot recommend them enough," he stated. 

Related Article: Microsoft Trims Down 1,900 Workers Under Gaming Division Months After Acquiring Activision Blizzard

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