Perfect Dark developed by The Initiative confirmed

[Pressure]

Saturday night Sony Stan’s playing their favorite game.

 

[Cakebatter]

You can call it industry standard, but Phil Spencer spoke out against it before he went and did the same thing. It is even more obvious today, that Phil had those trailers made as a Hail Mary to get Xbox One owners to buy their new console.

Phil Spencer, "Fuq them vaporware trailers..."

 

[Fctftl]

It would be nice if they showed something about Perfect Dark at the showcase.

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

@OnlyFrans

 

[ORDER_66]

@OnlyFrans

YEARS away from completion...

 

[Pressure]

YEARS away from completion...

6 year dev cycles

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

‘The Initiaitve’ like I’ve been saying has been a failure. They could have just cut out the middle man from the beginning and had crystal dynamics work on and finish this game two years ago already.

 

[Black Mamba]

 

[MeachTheMonster]

Why not post the whole quote

And while a new partnership with Crystal Dynamics appears to finally be bearing fruit, multiple sources who have worked on the game recently say that Perfect Dark is still "in the earliest stages" of development, estimating that it is still roughly two to three years away from being ready for release.

It was never supposed to be done before 2025.

Dumbass SSN again

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

Why not post the whole quote

Ok

Creative Assembly involved early on but there was a mismatch

In the early days of the project, the overall mood was optimistic. Perfect Dark was an exciting IP that most were thrilled to be working on, first at The Initiative and then at Certain Affinity when the studio signed onto the project in 2019.

As with any early development process, much of this initial work consisted of nailing down a clear creative vision for what the game would consist of, and then developing a core gameplay loop that is both supportive of that vision and fun for the player. Studio leadership was fairly clear from early on that The Initiative's Perfect Dark would see a balance of combat and espionage elements that would ideally feel like playing through a James Bond or Mission: Impossible film – the developers just had to figure out how to translate those memorable movie moments into video game format.

Dominated by male creative staff with insensitive comments made

One former employee, a woman, also expressed frustration both with the low numbers of female creative staff on the project generally during this time, as well as multiple meetings where male creative heads made insensitive suggestions that were difficult to push back on without more women in the room to support potential concerns. An Xbox spokesperson offered the following response to this specific topic:

"We are committed to addressing any and all concerns employees have, in accordance with our company policies. We have been and will continue to encourage employees to report workplace concerns when they have seen or experienced behavior that falls short of our culture, values, or policies. Employees can report workplace concerns in a number of ways, including anonymously."

Crystal Dynamics has basically taken over the game

In the middle of 2021, with Certain Affinity gone and the studio bleeding talent, leadership at The Initiative had to figure out who, exactly, would be doing the bulk of the development work on the project going forward. And in September, a savior arrived in Gallagher's old studio: Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics. According to one former Crystal Dynamics employee, the plan was for their studio to supplement and support The Initiative's vision – not to fully take over. But rather quickly it became apparent to Crystal Dynamics that Perfect Dark and The Initiative were going to need a lot more help than they had realized.

Xbox is "remarkably" hands off

Xbox took a different approach. In direct response to my specific inquiries, Xbox provided contextual information from past interviews with Darrell Gallagher about the purpose and direction of The Initiative and its Perfect Dark reboot, all of which complimented what my sources told me and has been included in the narrative above where relevant. But Xbox also connected me with Booty following its Xbox Games Showcase in June for an interview about its larger strategy for its studios, as well as regarding The Initiative more specifically.

Developers from all three studios involved with Perfect Dark told me that throughout development, Xbox has been remarkably hands-off with the project – not unlike its reported attitude toward Arkane's Redfall. One described the parent company's involvement as simply "giving us money and letting us decide how to move forward and requesting milestone updates."

Yeah… sounds like everything is going according to plan over there

 

[MeachTheMonster]

Ok

Creative Assembly involved early on but there was a mismatch

Dominated by male creative staff with insensitive comments made

Crystal Dynamics has basically taken over the game

Xbox is "remarkably" hands off



Yeah… sounds like everything is going according to plan over there

Perfect Dark was a big vision for what Gallagher expected would ultimately be a fairly small studio, even one that was packed with experienced, senior talent. His plan, sources say, was to have The Initiative work closely with other partners to become effectively a franchise steward of the Perfect Dark IP

Yeah, it does

Seems they had some trouble assembling a team and locking down a vision during the pandemic, now the game is on track and the original plan is in action

 

[levitate]

Perfect Trash.

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

Yeah, it does

Seems they had some trouble assembling a team and locking down a vision during the pandemic, now the game is on track and the original plan is in action

Yes, now that they gave it to another studio to make it lol

The Initiative literally have not done anything constructive since being formed

Because The Initiative had hired so many industry veterans in a competitive geographic location, many found new roles quickly and easily. Entire departments were hollowed out, and progress on Perfect Dark halted as people waited for key decision-making roles to be filled. One developer there at the time recalled "literally" doing "almost nothing for nine months," waiting for positions to be filled and decisions on key game elements to be made."

"One former Crystal Dynamics employee described what they were handed as a construction with no foundation. "A lot of the project, if not almost all of it, ended up needing to be wholly reworked," the source said. "They had done three years of work on it already, but we didn't benefit from three years of work."

Crystal Dynamics pretty much could have just made the game by themselves from the very beginning, which is essentially what they are doing after The Initiative wasted 3 years doing nothing but fighting with each other

 

[MeachTheMonster]

Yes, now that they gave it to another studio to make it lol

Read again.

That was the plan from the start. Just took a minute to get there.

 

[MeachTheMonster]

The Initiative literally have not done anything constructive since being formed

Seems they had some trouble assembling a team and locking down a vision during the pandemic,