Matt Firor, a ZeniMax Online Studios veteran of 18 years, left the company recently due to the cancellation of Project Blackbird. The sci-fi MMO was seven years in development, and will now never see the light of day. While Firor can understand the decision, it was such a huge project for him, one that he'd waited his entire career to make, that it felt like the loss of it was an indicator to move on.
"This idea around for a long time. And it was finally playable and fun," Firor described in an interview with MinnMax (via IdleSloth). He called Project Blackbird a "missed opportunity for me for ZOS for Bethesda for Xbox. I think it would have been a fantastic game," even going so far as to say "the world probably would have been a better place with that game in it."
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In the interview, Firor goes on to say that while he can see why the project was cancelled, he doesn't agree with the reasoning. Cost-cutting analysis meant a game that was in the works for so long but hadn't come close to release was bound to be eyed suspiciously, but it still seems everyone who got the chance to play Blackbird loved it.
Firor's exit comes after the immense disappointment of losing Project Blackbird. He noted that the size of the company created large financial pressures, meaning that he saw the cancellation of Blackbird as inevitable.