Announced during the Game Awards 2020, the next Perfect Dark would give Microsoft a few headaches. This is indeed what our colleagues from Video Games Chronicle indicated last March, stating in particular that The Initiative had to face a massive exodus of its developers, some of whom held key positions. A news that had not really surprised observers given that previously, Dan Neuburger (director) and Drew Murray (lead designer) had already decided to leave the ship.
The reason for these sudden departures? The way Perfect Dark was developed. According to the resigners interviewed, in addition to having almost no autonomy, they had the impression of navigating on sight, not to mention the high turnover to which The Initiative was subject. At one point, only about fifty developers were working on the game, which is obviously unthinkable for a project of this scale. This is why Microsoft decided to hire Crystal Dynamics last September, and the fact that The Initiative has recruited few people - only a dozen in the space of a year - illustrates the weight taken by the American studio in the development of Perfect Dark.
If we remind you of these elements, it is simply because in the context of a recent conference call with the investors of Embracer (which bought Crystal Dynamics this summer as well as part of the Western studios of Square Enix), Phil Rodgers has indicated that there is no need to worry about the next adventures of Joanna Dark. “We are working on the iconic Perfect Dark license and the project is progressing extremely, confided the one who is the boss of both Crystal Dynamics and Eidos. What has been particularly promising is to see how seized this opportunity , namely working in a new way. If we think about how we organize ourselves in the future, this type of collaboration involving different studios, different time zones, different geographies and different companies will become commonplace. It's good to see how The Initiative and our teams at Crystal Dynamics are working together."
As Video Game Chronicles reminds us, these words from Phil Rodgers echo those of Matt Booty, the boss of Xbox studios, who recalled at PAX West that the time when a single studio was working on a game with AAA ambitions was gone. And it's certainly not Rockstar Games who will say the opposite since it is exactly this working method that was applied for Red Dead Redemption 2. For the record, Perfect Dark is planned for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC. No release date has been communicated.
