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 new publishing partner and funding for the game following its cancellation. A 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.
Bloomberg reports that this deal ultimately fell through, with a big bone of contention being the ownership of the Perfect Dark franchise. That's right: Microsoft is happy to sit on properties for years, and cancel new entries in them, but it'll be damned before it lets those IP rights go.
Take-Two was not the only party involved in negotiations, but the failure to agree to a deal seems to have put the final nail in Perfect Dark's coffin. Following the deal's collapse in recent weeks, Crystal Dynamics laid off an unspecified number of staff, though did not give any specific reason.
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 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.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
