My feelings on the confirmed and rumored cancellations of the day:
Everwild- When development was rebooted in 2021, we heard they were aiming for a 2024 release. It is now mid 2025 and the game didn't even have a teaser trailer on the Summer Showcase, can't say I'm surprised by the cancellation.
Project Kestrel/Blackbird- I'm a bit sad about this one, Zenimax had some huge talent on this project including a top Red Dead Redemption 1 dev (one of my favorite games of all time), with development starting in 2018 with a team of like 10 people, and ramping up to 200 devs by November 2022, and was likely more like 400-500 devs by now. Zenimax Online opened multiple satellite studios to work on it, was developing a new engine with help from some of Xbox's best graphical developers like Coalition and Ninja Theory, and there were reports that the game was coming along nicely in recent years after multiple story reboots earlier in development (which is why it took 4 years to build from like 10 devs to 200). Zenimax Online as a whole could be up the creek without a paddle at this point, Elder Scrolls Online development seems to be winding down as the playerbase dwindles (once regularly in the top 50 most played games on Xbox when I would look a couple of years ago, it is currently down at #114), and now they have no game to transition into, making them a ripe target for a future full studio closure if Microsoft's bean counters decide more employees need laying off.
Perfect Dark- This one isn't confirmed cancelled yet, Jez said he was looking into rumors he had heard that the game had been cancelled though. This one would be more surprising to me than the others. Not only was this game hyped to hell, partially due to earlier AAAA confusion (it was always AAA), but also due to being the only AAA built-from-the-ground-up studio Xbox had recently (the rest were all acquired), and they even made a show of bringing in Crystal Dynamics to assist on the gameplay and The Coalition to assist on the Unreal 5 graphics to make sure hype was even higher. The game even had a gameplay trailer at the 2024 Summer Showcase, implying it was fairly far along in development, whereas Blackbird and Everwild had no gameplay released anytime recently. While Joanna's redesign had received some flak due to having less sex appeal than her earlier two incarnations, the game very likely would still be a success if released, especially with Gamepass boosting player counts. Something bad must have been going on behind the scenes if this one is actually cancelled.
