The new Perfect Dark was revealed in 2020; however, we haven't had any news or significant progress on the project all these years. Thanks to a new report, we know that the game is still in early stages of development, so it will still take quite a while to be released.
Former employees of The Initiative spoke with IGN and confirmed what many feared: the project was revealed too early. In fact, a developer stated that the game was showcased when they didn't even have an idea of what kind of game they would make.
Development of Perfect Dark has been challenging and won't debut soon
"We hadn't even defined any of our basic gameplay mechanics. We didn't even really know what kind of game we were making," said a former employee of The Initiative when asked about the reveal of Perfect Dark.
According to 13 sources familiar with the project, The Initiative has made little progress since then. The report mentions problems such as the pandemic, internal disagreements, developer loss, and other situations that have significantly affected the project.
It is specified that the partnership with Crystal Dynamics has helped; however, it is clarified that Perfect Dark is still in an early stage of development. Therefore, players will have to wait several more years to enjoy it.
Former employees also revealed certain issues with the project leads, who had difficulties in defining a clear vision for the game when Certain Affinity was involved. This led to an internal struggle related to the game's creative vision, resulting in several restarts.
"It's not that we didn't know what we wanted, it's that we kept doing things that weren't what we wanted. We did it over and over again. The levels we had when I left were not the same as we had three months before or three months before that. I don't know why people kept hitting the reset button. That contributed to the feeling that we weren't making progress. People kept starting over," said a creative.
"I blame The Initiative. I don't blame our development partners. We chose not to hold anyone accountable for the vision and let people keep trying things," another developer commented.
This situation caused key employees of The Initiative to decide to leave their positions, resulting in a talent exodus that further complicated things. Crystal Dynamics employees revealed that they received a "foundationless" project, so they practically had to start over in 2022 to bring the project to Unreal Engine 5.
Since then, progress has been slow but in a better manner than before. The report assures that Xbox has remained somewhat detached from the internal problems due to their policies of independence. A developer even claimed that the company only provides them with money to be able to continue.
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