Mass Effect Meets Cyberpunk In Cancelled MMO We Want More Than Ever

You may be familiar with Project Blackbird, an MMO cancelled at The Elder Scrolls Online developer ZeniMax Online Studio.

The game’s cancellation was, of course, unfortunate but it’s only now that gamers are really feeling the loss of what could have been. That’s because footage of the MMO has seemingly leaked online, and it’s the Cyberpunk 2077 meets Mass Effect world of our dreams.

Around two-minutes has leaked in total. Created in Unreal Engine 4, it was posted to X by user eXtas1stv. There’s no word on where he obtained said footage from.

There’s also no gameplay on offer either, but the footage does establish the game’s world.

A number of static scenes are shown, displaying a bustling neon-lit metropolis in space. You can take a look for yourself below. As I alluded to earlier, there’s very much a feeling of both Cyberpunk 2077 and Mass Effect at play here.

The locale also reminds me of Starfield’s Neon City or even somewhere you might stumble upon in Star Wars Outlaws.

If you look closely within the leaked footage, you can see a number of alien species populating the streets. Of course, just because the vibe of a game looks cool, it doesn’t mean the end product will be any good.

Project Blackbird could’ve ended up as the latest Concord to hit the market; in other words, be a total flop.

For now though, based on what we’ve seen, gamers are mourning what appears to be a solid vision.

“Design looks good,” wrote one gamer online.

“ZeniMax should put that time and effort into making ESO look this good tbh,” added another.

“I was really looking forward to this. It sucks that it got cancelled, but they were taking forever to make this game to come out,” someone remarked.

Project Blackbird Was Slated to Land in 2028

Project Blackbird, as a reminder, was cancelled by Microsoft in July of 2025 during a period of widespread layoffs.

It was reportedly due to land in 2028, according to Insider Gaming. No reason was ever given for why the project was cancelled.

It has been a rocky few years for MMOs and online games, but ZeniMax’s The Elder Scrolls Online is a huge success, so you’d think the project was in safe hands.

The cancellation resulted in the layoff of 300 developers which is undoubtedly the biggest loss in all of this.

We’ll never know whether Project Blackbird would’ve thrived or flopped. I simply hope all affected devs found replacement work as soon as possible.