Activision Blizzard recently conducted layoffs. Around 1,900 employees were cut, and a certain survival game from Blizzard also got caught in the crossfire — the project codenamed Odyssey was canceled.
Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier decided to reveal some details about Odyssey. It turns out Blizzard spent more than 6 years on the project. It was meant to be an analogue of Rust and Minecraft, but more polished.
Odyssey was expected to become Blizzard’s first major project based on a new franchise in a long time. Following the cancellation, it is unclear whether there will be similar projects in the future or if they will stick to legacy franchises.
Development of Odyssey was not going smoothly due to technical issues, including those related to the engine being used. The prototype was built on Unreal Engine, but they later switched to Synapse (an internal engine) because the initial one did not match Blizzard’s ambitions to support 100 players on a vast map. However, switching engines proved to be no salvation, only leading to major technical problems.
Feedback on the early build of Odyssey was generally positive, but the release was still years away. Blizzard hoped to expand the team looking toward a possible launch in 2026 (though even that date seemed overly optimistic to some).
Ultimately, Odyssey was canceled; they concluded that the Synapse engine was not ready for production.