Microsoft laying off 9,000+ people across its whole company resulted in a number of projects being cancelled, including a new MMO from ZeniMax Online, the Perfect Dark reboot, Rare's Everwild, and as we just learned earlier today, Contraband, from Avalanche Studios. One game that isn't cancelled however, according to a Microsoft spokesperson, is Hideo Kojima's horror game he's making in collaboration with Xbox, OD.
That news comes from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who in his reporting on Contraband, asked after the status of OD, which is another project from Microsoft that was announced years ago, though we've heard very little of since. He reports that he was told by a Microsoft spokesperson that OD "is still in development."
OD was first announced during The Game Awards 2023 showcase, and was such an exciting announcement at the time, that it was the one game out of everything else announced that year that dominated press coverage of TGA 2023.
Since then, however, we've heard very little about OD. Kojima has mentioned it and the work he's doing on it in passing, and has also talked about how his goals with OD is to make something that players have not necessarily seen before. He's called it a "risky" game that will be "divisive," but at the same time it sounds like he's excited to be making something that he knows will push players, something he knows that not everyone will fall head-over-heels for.
Horror-director Jordan Peele is also meant to be working on OD alongside Kojima and Xbox, though what we know about Peele's involvement so far is equal to what we know about OD itself, which is very little.
Perhaps now that Death Stranding 2: On the Beach has launched and is on store shelves, we'll soon start to hear more about what's happening with OD, and get a more official word/sign on if it's happening at all.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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