Project Blackbird Leaks

I won't be linking the content, however earlier today some video of "Blackbird" leaked, it was syndicated on some news outlets, such as the Metro.

I have to say I have no idea from where the files came and it really quite annoyed me.  On a personal level, no-one I know of has nor ever tried to leak anything about that brilliant project; and as one of the first engineers on the task of bringing it to life it really irks me.

I've blogged about my feelings on the brutal cancellation before.

This video leak however is more annoying, not least because that was very old footage, it might even have been from a very early prototype build, and it clearly wasn't using the fantastic all ray traced renderer nor were the assets all the final ones we had (yes, live ray traced engine on an XBox Series X! Or a 2080 RTX min spec!).

People liked what they saw, but it wasn't mind blowing, Blackbird actually was.  Sure we had a ways to go, but the play loop was ace, the scope of the world was massive, the movement systems were top notch, I'm not saying anything others have not already said and I look at the predicted releases for XBox in 2026/2027 (our release window) and honestly I don't see much coming from their own mews.

Indeed, with the RAM shortage & it's costs it's pushing hardware options out into the future too, so it's likely Blackbird might have had 6-8 months added content creation before the next XBox hardware was even announced.

And remember this is Zenimax Online, their track record for live service games and regular content creation is right up there, we knew what we were doing (for the most part), we were realistic in dealing with things, we were moving into a massive tech debt and the tooling was all in place to start churning out the worlds and the stories we had to set in that living world.

Honestly, a gem has been buried, never to see the light, but unlike the Arkenstone the theif didn't come to steal from the dragon, instead the thieves stole our sweat & tears, I believe an unrivalled team.

So this leak, take it all with a pinch of salt, the game, the real game, looked so much better, fast paced and beautifully sultry.