Perfect Dark Studio The Initiative Departures Described as 'Fast and Furious' By Insiders
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Tuesday, March 15, 2022 @ 01:55 PM
It's dead in the water - calling it, even if this comes out it'll be worse for wear.
Luckily I still have my 360 and N64 copies.Tuesday, March 15, 2022 @ 02:33 PM
This game will be a turdTuesday, March 15, 2022 @ 02:34 PM
I wouldn’t read too much into it. Lots of folks are leaving for different jobs.
Curious to see what direction they are going for. I loved the bots in Perfect Dark. Dark sims, judge sims. They have specific behaviors. Those games were both ahead of their times.Tuesday, March 15, 2022 @ 02:39 PM
Hoping for the best but this makes me wish even more that the Goldeneye 007 rumors are true. A big part of wanting more Perfect Dark is in wanting more of that gameplay and up till January it was just a sad fact we were never getting an official release of that first game. If they can't do right by the legacy of Goldeneye and Perfect Dark in the new game, I just hope we can have the full legacy on Xbox.
I'm enjoying playing through Timesplitters via back compat.Tuesday, March 15, 2022 @ 06:56 PM
things are definitely looking dark...Wednesday, March 16, 2022 @ 04:12 AM
Family.Wednesday, March 16, 2022 @ 01:57 PM
That's what Dom keeps saying..
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Tuesday, March 15, 2022
Things appear to be somewhat turbulent at Perfect Dark reboot developer The Initiative, with the studio recently seeing the departure of Game Director Dan Neuburger, having previously waved goodbye to co-founder and Lead Designer Drew Murray, who returned to Insomniac Games last year.
Apparently, The Initiative has seen almost half of its core team leave the Perfect Dark reboot studio, with the departures described by insiders as “fast and furious”. Lead level designer Chris O'Neill, principal world builder Jolyon Myers, two senior system designers, three former designers whose previous work includes God of War, and others are among a reported 34 staff members said to have left the company in the past 12 months.
Senior writers, the game's lead technical directors, technical art director, lead gameplay engineer, lead animator, QA lead, and more are also listed on LinkedIn as no longer being with The Initiative, VGC reports, cutting the studio's numbers to fewer than 50 people. Conversely, twelve new staff members have been hired over the course of the past year.
Despite the changes and departures, The Initiative states that it remains "confident in the team" in place, as it continues work on the game alongside collaborators at Tomb Raider studio Crystal Dynamics. "It’s no small task to build a studio and reinvent a beloved franchise,” The Initiative Studio Head Darrell Gallagher told VGC.
“In creating The Initiative, we set out to leverage co-development partnerships to achieve our ambitions, and we’re really excited about all the progress we’re seeing with our relationship with Crystal Dynamics,” he continued. “In this journey, it’s not uncommon for there to be staffing changes, especially during a time of global upheaval over the last two years, and there’s plenty more work in front of us to deliver a fantastic Perfect Dark experience to our players.
"We wish all our former colleagues the very best, and I’m confident in the team we have in place, the new talent joining, and we can’t wait to share more with the fans."
It's been a while since we've had an update regarding the Perfect Dark reboot, so here's hoping we hear something a bit more positive about the project soon.