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Still in pre-production, 2-3 years from release.
Closing in on three years since its announcement, Microsoft’s Perfect Dark reboot is still nowhere to be seen, and a new report claims a succession of unfortunate setbacks has lead to “little meaningful progress” on the project since its 2020 unveiling.
When Microsoft revealed its Perfect Dark reboot for Xbox during The Game Awards in December 2020, it confirmed the project was being developed by The Initiative, the Santa Monica-based studio founded by Crystal Dynamics veteran Darrell Gallagher.
Since then, sporadic reports have suggested something of a tumultuous journey for the project; Crystal Dynamics was brought in to assist The Initiative in September 2021, game director Dan Neuburger departed the studio in March last year, and an exodus of over 30 key staff was reported shortly after – causing head of Microsoft Studios Matt Booty to insist the game wasn’t in trouble during a panel talk in September 2022.
And now, a new report by IGN’s Rebekah Valentine has shed additional light on Perfect Dark’s bumpy road to release, pointing to a project that has hit “roadblock after roadblock”, making “little meaningful progress” in the years since its reveal.
According to IGN’s sources, while The Intiative’s goal for Perfect Dark was to deliver a mix of combat and espionage reminiscent of James Bond or Mission: Impossible, translating that concept into something players would actually do took far longer than expected – dragging on into the project’s second and third years as leadership refused to commit to “any specific ideas or shape” for the game. This inability to “communicate a clear vision” reportedly led to “build after build being thrown out” and mounting frustration among staff.
Amid this lack of direction, The Initiative is said to have struggled to work effectively with its initial co-development partner, Halo co-development studio Certain Affinity. Both teams reportedly worked on Perfect Dark together for “several” years, but clashing visions and a “mismatch” in outlooks – Certain Affinity was used to developing under very specific instructions and The Initiative was seeking a more creative partnership – began to cause strain, with moral dropping further as the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Despite all that, both teams reportedly managed to put together a “fairly polished proof of concept of Perfect Dark” by spring 2021, featuring prototype levels, basic traversal, gadgets, combat, and a loose narrative. But “hardly anyone was happy in its wake” and the two studios elected not to renew their co-development contract, leaving The Initiative “short over half” of a team just as development was supposed to hit its next phase.
As frustration and dissatisfaction grew, Perfect Dark design director Drew Murray made the decision to leave the studio. This was to be the first of 35 departures in 2021 and another 12 in the first quarter of 2022, reportedly causing development progress to halt “as people waited for key decision-making roles to be filled”.
Perfect Dark’s fortunes finally looked like they might improve as 2021 continued, when Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics signed up to “supplement and support” The Initiative. However, the vertical slice Crystal Dynamics received – the fruits of the project’s first three years in development – “was a bit of a mess”, with one source telling IGN, “A lot of the project, if not almost all of it, ended up needing to be wholly reworked”.
As 2022 got underway, Perfect Dark was “essentially started over from scratch in Unreal 5”, but with key roles still needing to be filled at The Initiative, Crystal Dynamics began to “take more and more ownership of the project” – reportedly leading to “disagreements and infighting” among the departments that still had established leaders at The Initiative. However, progress was finally being made and – despite its acquisition by Embracer Group – Crystal Dynamics is said to have “fully settled into the driver’s seat on the project” by the end of the year.
That, though, doesn’t mean the Perfect Dark reboot will arrive any time soon. IGN’s sources say the project – which remains a spy flavoured FPS combining espionage, gadgets, and combat – is still in pre-production and roughly two to three years away from release.
IGN’s full report has plenty more detail and nuance on the development of Microsoft’s Perfect Dark reboot and is well worth a read.
