Microsoft's purchase of Rare in 2002 gave the company access to tons of IP and franchises that formerly had an exclusive home on Nintendo consoles. Over the years, fans saw the reemergence of series like Battletoads, Killer Instinct, Banjo-Kazooie, and even a collection of classic titles in a complete package called Rare Replay. While Microsoft's first attempt at bringing super spy, Joanna Dark, back was largely met with mixed results, the company is giving Perfect Dark another chance with its newest first party studio, The Initiative.
Originally formed to create what Microsoft refers to as AAAA titles, The Initiative as had no shortage of top industry talent join its ranks. Located in Santa Monica, California, The Initiative has managed to attract developers from all over the games industry including talent who worked for studios like Naughty Dog, Irrational Games, Blizzard, Insomniac, and plenty more. Fan excitement rose even more when it was revealed at the 2020 Game Awards that The Initiative is working on a Perfect Dark reboot.
However, the game has since gone dark and new reports indicate that the reason is due to turmoil within the company. Industry insiders are now saying that The Initiative has lost nearly half of its core Perfect Dark development team over the part year including most of the senior design team. Already, the studio has lost key members like game director Dan Neuburger, design director Drew Murray, lead level designer Chris O'Neill, and much more.
Apparently, many of these departures seems to align with the September 2021 reveal that Crystal Dynamics was brought in as a support studio to assist on the Perfect Dark project. According to sources, Crystal Dynamics has been given more authority on the projects than initially expected, which has seemingly caused development related issues which include a lack of creative autonomy and slow development progress. Some have even criticized the studio's heavy "top-down" management style, leading to a massive slowdown on the project's momentum and progress.
Making games is hard enough, let alone when you feel like you can’t get through to people making the decisions that affect everyone.
For now, project leadership which includes studio head Darrell Gallagher, remain committed and confident in the team that continues to work on the Perfect Dark reboot. Crystal Dynamics will likely be filling in the development holes from the high turnover at The Initiative. There's also rumors circulating that Perfect Dark could be getting a soft reboot due to all of the core staff departures, but for now, these reports are unconfirmed, so fans should take things with a grain of salt.
Perfect Dark is in development.
Source: VideoGamesChronicle