Dune Awakening lead says his “heart goes out” for Elder Scrolls Online devs after Microsoft lay-offs scrap their next MMO as cancelled projects make devs “feel like you spent your time poorly”

Microsoft has laid off over 9,000 employees, causing the cancellation of numerous projects including Everwild, Perfect Dark, and the next MMORPG from the team behind Elder Scrolls Online. After seven years of development, the canned MMO was shaping up well with fantastic playtests and praise from Microsoft execs, but it was killed anyway.

In an interview with VideoGamer, Dune Awakening creative director Joel Bylos discussed the cancellation of Zenimax Online Studios’ project in the wake of launching his project. While the new Dune game brings in millions of players, we’ll never get to see how popular ZOS’ Project Blackbird could become, and Bylos feels for the creatives involved.

“I feel my heart goes out to all the developers who are losing their jobs and losing their ideas,” Bylos told VideoGamer this afternoon. “I think, one thing I have to say just for everyone to understand, we put years of our lives into these things. I spent five, six years on Dune now, and if it got cut four years in…”

“Imagine seven years of your life. We only get, you know, seventy to eighty years on this planet. We can’t do much for the first few.”

DUNE AWAKENING CREATIVE DIRECTOR JOEL BYLOS

Project Blackbird was in some form of development for seven years, and was recently undergoing playtests. Reportedly based on an original IP using a brand-new in-house engine, the project was a huge undertaking and while we have no idea how close the project was to launch, Bylos understands just how painful the loss of that project can be.

“Imagine seven years of your life,” Bylos said. “We only get, you know, seventy to eighty years on this planet. We can’t do much for the first few. So, seven years of your life is a massive investment for those developers. Not just in, you know, creative effort, but in their actual [lives[ and I feel for them. It’s one of the things you think a lot about, you know, if we’re pursuing these projects and they get cut, it really feels like you’ve spent your time poorly, and it’s not your fault at all.”

The Dune Awakening lead is, sadly, speaking from experience. Bylos worked on Funcom’s infamous MMORPG The Secret World, a project that simply didn’t take off. While the game had a core fanbase, some felt that they had wasted years of their lives developing a game that didn’t stick the landing.

“In 2012 we launched The Secret World,” he said. “It was a game that I loved, I worked really hard on it. I was a lead. After launch, I became the game director and we were putting our updates. There was a core player base who loved the game, but it sold one-fifth of what the company needed it to sell to make it successful and to keep it running for a long time.”

“I just kept seeing my team getting smaller and smaller, and still players expected us to deliver the same amount of content and updates,” he continued. “We just couldn’t maintain that, right? You can’t afford to have 100 people on that project, you now have 50. You can’t afford to have 50 people, you now have 30… there’s this slow attrition of your ability to deliver and then there’s an attrition of player because the content updates get smaller and smaller.”

While Bylos doesn’t know exactly what happened with Zenimax’s Project Blackbird, he does know the will of investors.

“I know that a lot of investors are actually about safe cash cows,” he explained. “So live-service games that work, and ESO is one that works… they’d be very scared to gamble and pull team members to work on another MMO when they can keep milking that same cow. And I say that because I believe the game is really good.”

Bylos concludes that the “suits probably made their decision based on numbers”, especially with Elder Scrolls Online bringing in billions of dollars over its lifetime. With Project Blackbird based on an alleged original IP, could it have worked? Maybe it could’ve. But is it guaranteed to work, no matter how good the gameplay is? In this world, sadly not.

While Microsoft continues rampaging through the games industry, culling projects left, right and center, at least there are a few beacons of hope shining bright. Funcom’s Dune Awakening has done better than anyone anticipated becoming the 32-year-old company’s best-selling game ever with millions of players.

The future is bright for Dune Awakening with a ten-year plan worked out and rapid fixes coming to address key issues. A console version of the game is also planned to release sometime in 2026. While one MMO has been snuffed out before its time, Funcom’s light is shining brightly.