Blizzard’s upcoming survival game cancelled amidst Microsoft Lay-offs

Survival games are the new trend in the gaming industry. Look at Palworld and Enshrouded, two recently released games that have amassed a huge player base. It was time AAA companies also jumped on this trend.

Blizzard was also betting on this trend and was making a new survival. The game was reportedly in development for the last six years. However, it is now reportedly cancelled after Microsoft laid off close to 2,000 employees.

Lay-offs implicated the studio heavily

In a recent interview, a Blizzard spokesperson, Andrew Reynolds, revealed that the project was named ‘Odyssey’. The game was being developed in an in-house engine, Synapse, which caused a lot of problems.

Lots of assets were wasted, as artists were reportedly working on Unreal Engine as the Synapse engine was made to develop mobile games.

The layoffs further spoiled plans for a 2026 release. As per reports, the lay-offs hit Xbox, Activision Blizzard, and ZeniMax divisions. However, Blizzard saw the largest layoffs.

Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard for $69 billion. People believe that the company might be cutting costs. As per the company, it was simply to reduce the over-hiring during the pandemic.

The game idea never truly dies

While the game may be cancelled, the concept can be further used by the developers in their upcoming game. Although, it’s a shame that players won’t be able to play a new game by Blizzard anytime soon.

“As difficult as making these decisions are, experimentation and risk-taking are part of Blizzard’s history and the creative process,” Reynolds said as per Kotaku.

“Ideas make their way into other games, or in some cases become games of their own. Starting something completely new is among the hardest things to do in gaming, and we’re immensely grateful to all of the talented people who supported the project,” he further added.