As part of the big wave of layoffs at Microsoft, Blizzard’s new survival IP was also completely discontinued. Now more and more details are becoming known about the title, which unfortunately will no longer reach us.
In 2022, Blizzard Entertainment announced a survival title, the first new game brand since the release of Overwatch – but this will no longer make it onto the market. In the wake of the big wave of layoffs at Microsoft, Activision Blizzard also began to move around and well-known employees of Blizzard Entertainment also fired the cult developer. The survival game mentioned was also completely canceled – and now more and more details are becoming known about what we could have expected.
The Blizz survival game was fantastic, the team behind it even more fantastic, and it is our collective loss to never be able to experience it as a finished piece.
I didn’t overlap with a lot of the team, but when you’re ready would love to help if I can.
— Johnny Cash (@QuestTheLine) January 25, 2024
We previously reported that the development based on the in-house Synapse engine was said to have caused numerous problems – also an important reason that ultimately led to the termination of the development work. The game, which is said to have been in the works since 2017, could have been quite interesting – if it hadn’t ended up in “development hell”.
How PureXbox and Bloombergs Jason Schreier now reports that after the work has been stopped, what was internally referred to as Project Odyssey would have had similarities to the long-running favorites Minecraft and Rust. The game servers could have hosted up to 100 players in a game. Could you have made friends with such a mix?
(Bloomberg) Blizzard’s Survival Game Odyssey Details
– Development for six years
– A team of more than 100 people developed it
– Development started in Unreal Engine
– Switch to Blizzard’s Engine Synapse due to technical issues surrounding the engine
– Rust/Minecraft-like with… pic.twitter.com/sCqufWH5RN
— Idle Sloth💙💛 (@IdleSloth84_) January 26, 2024
The development work was even started on the basis of the Unreal Engine before switching to Blizzard’s own Synapse engine, which is said to have caused the numerous problems. The development team would therefore have liked to return to the Unreal Engine – but this wish was denied to the employees.
Incidentally, the big wave of layoffs at Microsoft hit Blizzard Entertainment particularly in the area of customer service. The vast majority of jobs have been eliminated in the Customer Support Division because Microsoft wants to outsource these jobs. Several community managers are also affected by the layoffs.
Blizzard Entertainment presents the Premium Battle Pass in the current Season 3 of Diablo IV.
