Odyssey (cancelled video game)
Odyssey | |
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Survival |
Odyssey was the project name for a cancelled
Development
Odyssey started as a pitch from Craig Amai in 2017, and he became project lead in July 2017.[4] It was conceived to be similar to a more polished version of popular survival games such as Minecraft and Rust, containing "vast" maps supporting up to 100 players. Due to the ambitious map size, the game's engine was switched from Unreal Engine, in which it was prototyped, to Synapse, an internally-developed engine created specifically for Odyssey and envisioned as something that would be shared by multiple projects. However, the switch led to significant problems - due to delays, Blizzard's artists were forced to continue prototyping in Unreal, knowing their work would later be discarded.[2]
The game was teased in 2022, upon which time it was already in a playable state and undergoing testing. At the time, it was simply called "Unannounced Survival Game".[4] Details about the game were given in the form of a developer recruitment news item, accompanied by two pieces of artwork, depicting an "ax-wielding ranger wearing an animal skull-shaped helmet and light armor" in a fantasy world with a portal to a more modern one, and "a pair of teenagers in a modern-day city environment stumbling upon a fantasy world".[5] It was announced for "PC and console", which Jessica Conditt of Engadget speculated could refer solely to the Xbox given Microsoft's impending buyout.[1] Despite the development problems, numerous current and former Blizzard employees expressed excitement for the game on social media when it was revealed to the public.[6]
At the time of the Microsoft acquisition, team members remained hopeful they would be allowed to switch back to Unreal Engine due to Microsoft's stance on allowing game leads rather than executives choose the technology used. While the game was positively received by testers, however, there was estimated to be several years of development time remaining on the project, with even a 2026 release seeming overly optimistic. The news of the game's cancellation was announced by Microsoft in a company-wide email in late January 2024.[2] Some of the former team members from Odyssey were moved to other projects in development,[2] though a significant portion were laid off.[7][8]
Reception
In 2022, Tyler Wilde of
Ali Jones of GamesRadar+ responded to the cancellation of Odyssey by calling it "a sign of Blizzard, Microsoft, and perhaps the AAA industry as a whole utterly failing to adapt to one of the greatest genre successes of the last 20 years". Noting that Palworld was currently the most popular game on Steam, despite being "somewhat janky" and "arguably derivative", he called the decision to cancel the comparatively more polished Odyssey "baffling", and was astonished that the technical problems surrounding its development would be ignored in a manner that left the game to fail. He described it as "indicative of the AAA industry's lack of respect or appreciation for one of the most successful genres in the world". Criticizing AAA publishers as "increasingly risk-averse", he concluded that they failed to see the promise in a genre that consistently exceeded expectations and ruined the chances for a "Blizzard-grade survival game".[10]
References
- ^ a b Conditt, Jessica (2022-01-25). "Blizzard is diving into the survival game genre". Engadget. Archived from the original on 2024-01-25. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
- ^ a b c d Schreier, Jason (2024-01-25). "Microsoft Cancels New Blizzard Video Game After Six Years of Development". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 2024-01-25. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
- ^ Rick Lane (2023-05-11). "Blizzard developers say mandatory return-to-office policy has 'cost us some amazing people'". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
- ^ a b Smith, Graham (2022-01-30). "Blizzard's survival game has already been in development for nearly five years". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on 2024-01-25. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
- ^ McWhertor, Michael (2022-01-25). "Blizzard announces 'brand-new survival game' set in new universe". Polygon. Archived from the original on 2024-01-16. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
- ^ Wilde, Tyler (2022-01-28). "Current and former Blizzard employees are hyped about its new survival game". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 2024-01-26. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
- ^ Alexander, Cristina (2024-01-25). "The Team Working on Blizzard's Now-Canceled Survival Was Seemingly Gutted Amid Xbox Mass Layoffs". IGN. Archived from the original on 2024-01-27. Retrieved 2024-01-27.
- ^ Kennedy, Victoria (2024-01-26). "Blizzard's cancelled survival game was in development over six years". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 2024-01-26. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
- ^ Wilde, Tyler (2022-02-01). "What can Blizzard bring to the survival genre?". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 2024-01-26. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
- ^ Jones, Ali (2024-01-26). "Especially after Palworld, the death of Blizzard's survival game makes me yearn for a AAA take on PC's most vibrant genre". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on 2024-01-27. Retrieved 2024-01-27.