The industry is still feeling the aftershocks of Microsoft's decision to lay off thousands of staff in July, which came alongside multiple game cancellations. One of the most high-profile was the Perfect Dark reboot being co-developed by The Initiative, a studio that has now been closed, and Crystal Dynamics.
It turns out that, per a new Bloomberg report, Crystal Dynamics attempted to find a joy rummy new publishing partner and funding for the game following its cancellation. A rummy new app mooted deal with Take-Two would have seen it buy the game from Microsoft's Xbox division, fund the remaining development and then publish it.
Perfect Dark was announced in 2020, but revealed properly in 2024. Co-developed by The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics, it rebooted the first-person series as more of an rummy nobel immersive sim and looked… well, kind of awesome. There was some speculation about just how much smoke-and-mirrors was involved in the reveal trailer, but those who worked on the game insisted it was real, and after early development struggles things had been going well.
The Initiative was closed as part of Microsoft's mass layoffs and, while the game was publicly cancelled, Microsoft gave permission for studio leadership alongside Crystal Dynamics to find funding elsewhere. The parties spent two months trying to keep the project alive: but now, Perfect Dark really is cancelled.
