Perfect Dark and the new ZeniMax Online franchise may have been cancelled

, by Thibaut

Perfect Dark and the new ZeniMax Online franchise may have been cancelled

Update July 2, 2025 at 6:10 p.m.

Microsoft has confirmed the cancellation of Perfect Dark and the closure of The Initiative. Rare's Everwild has suffered the same fate, as have other unannounced games.

Original article

We are beginning to see the first consequences of this week's redundancies at Xbox. One report mentions the cancellation of Everwild, which was to be Rare's new game (Sea of Thieves). But that's not all...

Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier reported on Bluesky that ZeniMax Online Studios' (The Elder Scrolls Online) next MMORPG has apparently been buried. Known by the codename “Blackbird”, this massively multiplayer title had been in development since 2018.

Another rumor is that Perfect Dark has been cancelled. This reboot of sorts was in production at The Initiative, a studio that has yet to release a single game since its debut in 2018. Crystal Dynamics is co-developing the project.

Of course, these rumors have yet to be confirmed or denied by Microsoft.

Source: windowscentral.com

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