The Initiative partners with Crystal Dynamics on Perfect Dark for Xbox Series X|S and PC

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Big update on the developers of the upcoming reboot.

Perfect Dark Crystal Dynamics
Perfect Dark Crystal Dynamics (Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

What you need to know

  • The Initiative is a part of Xbox Game Studios, first founded in 2018.
  • At the Game Awards 2020, The Initiative revealed that it is working on a reboot of Perfect Dark.
  • The Initiative announced on Thursday that Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics is aiding the project.

The Initiative, developer of upcoming first-person shooter Perfect Dark, announced on Thursday that the team is partnering with Crystal Dynamics in order to develop the upcoming near-future spy thriller.

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The Initiative noted via Twitter that the game is still "early in development" but that the two teams are now working together. Interestingly enough, Darrell Gallagher, studio head of The Initiative, is the former head of Crystal Dynamics. Crystal Dynamics is owned by Square Enix and is primarily known for working on the Tomb Raider franchise, as well as more recently Marvel's Avengers.

The Initiative was first announced at E3 2018, a studio founded in Santa Monica, California from the ground up as part of Microsoft's renewed investment in gaming. The Perfect Dark reboot was then announced at the Game Awards 2020.

Whenever Perfect Dark arrives, it'll be available on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC. It'll also launch directly into Xbox Game Pass, like all first-party Xbox games.

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Samuel Tolbert
Samuel Tolbert

Samuel Tolbert is a freelance writer covering gaming news, previews, reviews, interviews and different aspects of the gaming industry, specifically focusing on Xbox and PC gaming on Windows Central. You can find him on Twitter @SamuelTolbert.
5 Comments
  • It's a nice spin, but this feels like nothing but a bad thing. I'm glad they have the connections to do this, but it means they have neither the expertise nor the manpower to make this game on their own. It's very worrisome.
  • The Initiative had 1 employee in 2018 and they've currently got 70 employees according to LinkedIn, that's a modest amount. It's slow, gradual growth which means they're not rushing, they're not just hiring literally anyone. If they had 300+ developers working there so soon, I would be very worried about the quality of those developers.
    It's going to take years to scale up, but that's a good thing, it means they're focusing on quality over quantity.
    Bringing in another studio to help in the meantime is a good thing, it means the game isn't a decade away and it can still be ambitious.
  • Yeah but when this same Initiative studio called itself "AAAA" a couple years back, it does raise questions about this recent move (Source for Initiative's "AAAA" job posting: https://www.windowscentral.com/what-can-we-realistically-expect-new-xbox... )
  • This is why you don't buy in to marketing buzz words like "AAAA games".
  • No, it would be worrying if they weren't outsourcing.
    Do you know how many studios worked on The Last of Us Part 2? Fourteen. Fourteen studios with over 2000 individuals working on a single game. Naughty Dog didn't develop alone, neither does any AAA game these days. Everything high quality is a collaboration with multiple studios. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vg247.com/amp/the-last-of-us-part-2-cas...