Project Blackbird is another high-profile cancellation, even if it was never officially revealed. Six months later, former ZeniMax Online Studios president Matt Firor has finally confirmed that this led to his sudden departure from the company.

“The most obvious explanation is the correct one,” Firor said on LinkedIn (with the statement shared on Bluesky). “Project Blackbird was the game I had waited my entire career to create, and having it cancelled led to my resignation. My heart and thoughts are always with the impacted team members, many of whom I had worked 20+ years with, and all of whom were the most dedicated, amazingly talented group of developers in the industry.”

As a new sci-fi IP separate from The Elder Scrolls Online, Blackbird was allegedly in development since 2018 and featured a new engine. Though it was still in pre-production, full development was expected to begin soon enough. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer and then-Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty even reportedly enjoyed it, but it sadly wasn’t meant to be.

Some of the developers who worked on Blackbird have since founded the “fully employee-owned and funded” Sackbird Studios, which is currently working on a new project. Firor isn’t “directly involved” but has been “advising some of them informally.” And while he still hasn’t quite figured out what’s next, much less “seriously contemplated spinning up a new development studio,” there have been “investments in small teams that I know will play a big part in changing the industry in the future.”

In the meantime, Firor paid his respects to The Elder Scrolls Online team and players, the latter of which he now comprises.

According to Insider Gaming, the multiplayer title has changed its scope quite a few times over its development period, with its latest iteration being an under-development extraction shooter set in a fictionalized version of Alaska, named Alashnica.

The game is set to take its cues from its Far Cry predecessors, with players setting out to look for resources. These resources can then be used to craft new equipment. For example, leather from a killed animal can be used to make new gear, while chemicals found in the world will allow players to make gadgets.

In extraction shooter fashion, players will also have a hideout where they can store the things they find and craft. The game will also have permadeath, which means that players will lose all of their character’s progress on death.

The other Far Cry title in development, dubbed Project Blackbird, will be a new mainline entry in the series, and will probably end up titled Far Cry 7.

While the extraction shooter doesn’t yet have a release date, according to Insider Gaming, the game is slated for release before Far Cry 7. The current internal release window for the title is set for April 2025, with an alpha release in early 2024.

One of these is presumed to be a single-player experience, Far Cry 7, while the other is multiplayer-only. They were reportedly one game early on as Project Talisker under Hay before his departure. Far Cry 7 is internally referred to as Project Blackbird, while Project Maverick is the multiplayer title. Ubisoft Montreal is heavily involved in both.

There aren’t a lot of details, but two anonymous sources revealed that Maverick changed several times over the past year. It’s reportedly an extraction-based shooter set in the Alaskan wilderness and features contracts, backpacks and permadeath. Though there is the threat of other players, you’ll need to worry as much, if not more, about the wildlife and freezing weather.

Insider Gaming has seen screenshots of extraction zones, loot chests and more that line up with this premise but can’t publicly show them. Both titles are apparently a couple of years off, at least, and tentatively targeting Fall 2025. Ubisoft responded to the report with, “We don’t comment on rumors or speculation”.

The far-off release lines up with Kotaku’s report on the next Far Cry being further out than Ubisoft originally planned. Time will tell if it manages to hit it, or if there will be delays, as seen with recent projects like Skull and Bones and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.