Microsoft Fires 1900 Gaming Workers
Today marked another sad day for the gaming industry riddled with dismissals and terminations. As Microsoft laid off 1,900 workers today, Blizzard Entertainment canceled its unannounced survival MMO codenamed Odyssey. The game was originally announced on January 25, 2022.
Besides being Blizzard’s first new game since Overwatch in 2016, Odyssey was also the studio’s second MMO, and it would’ve been its first game under Microsoft’s new operating system.
As far as Blizzard is concerned, the last project it canceled was Titan’s MMO back in 2014. But remnants of that project were later retooled into Overwatch and Overwatch 2.
In late 2022, Far Cry alum Dan Hay, who served as Crysis’ general manager, was brought on board as the project’s general manager. The project was initially announced as a PC and console game.
Odyssey was also canceled in conjunction with the departures of Mike Ybarra, co-founder/chief design officer Allen Adham, and Blizzard’s longtime president Mike Ybarra. It’s unclear whether Hay or anyone on that project will transfer to another team if they remain at the studio.