Xbox executives reportedly very impressed with ZeniMax's MMO shooter, Phil Spencer had to be pulled away

Then the project was cancelled, and now we'll never see what had Phil so excited.

It has been a rough week for Microsoft and Xbox to say the least. Thousands of layoffs have hit the company, and over in the gaming sphere, we've also heard about multiple project cancellations. The Perfect Dark remake, Everwild, and a ZeniMax MMO shooter in the style of Destiny.

According to a report by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, ZeniMax's shooter wasn't cancelled due to poor quality. Demos for the game apparently impressed a lot of important internal people. It was even stated that Xbox Games Studios head Matt Booty had to pull Phil Spencer away from his controller during a demo.

The game began development back in 2018, and was looking at a tentative 2028 launch, so it's not like it was swiped away from us right before we got the chance to play it, but it still stings to know that a game that seemed to be impressing the right people and doing the right things wasn't safe from cancellation.