Microsoft has been catching flak after the closure of Tango Gameworks, Arkane Austin, Roundhouse Studios and Alpha Dog Studios. While Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty assured employees of upcoming Bethesda releases in an internal email, its other projects are an entirely different matter. The Initiative’s Perfect Dark, announced in December 2020, is a good example.
In the recent Giant Bombcast, Jeff Grubb said in the wake of the closures, “As part of the fallout from this… been hearing more and more, and I’ve been hearing for years that Perfect Dark is in a rough state. It sounds like it’s in a very rough state.
“And it doesn’t sound like it’s really come together in any way since then.” Perhaps the more concerning part is the first-person shooter perspective, with Grubb mentioning, “It sounds like they don’t even know if that’s what they want to do with that.”
RPG Site owner Alex Donaldson also mentioned Perfect Dark on Twitter, noting, “I have some crazy stories about the development of that game I have not put in print out of respect for a team really trying hard to push a boulder up a steep hill. But my patience is getting thin.”
It wouldn’t be the first time that reports of development troubles emerged, whether it’s numerous departures or development starting from scratch on Unreal Engine 5 in 2022. The project is reportedly two to three years off from launch and could have an episodic format.
Going by Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty’s statement from last year, it’s due for gameplay deep dive in 2024 alongside State of Decay 3. Stay tuned for updates in the meantime.