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[Poltz]

At the time the trailer – created by an external CG house – was shown, it was “very obviously way far ahead of anywhere the game was at,” according to one developer who was working at The Initiative at the time. “We hadn’t even figured out any of our core game mechanics. We didn’t even really know what type of game we were making.”

Among even more former employees we spoke to was a sense that the people in charge were unable to communicate a clear vision for the game they had so enthusiastically signed up to make. Or, some said, when they did manage to communicate that vision, leadership ignored or dismissed feedback from the experienced team they had put together. These repeated struggles over creative vision resulted, sources said, in build after build being thrown out, and internal frustration growing with each new reset.

“It was not that we didn’t know what we wanted, it was that we kept making things that weren’t what we wanted,” said one The Initiative developer. “We’d do it over and over again. The…levels we had when I left weren’t the same ones we’d had three months prior, or three months prior [to that]. I don’t know why people just kept hitting the reset button. That was definitely contributing to that feeling that we weren’t making any progress. People kept starting over.”

Which is how in 2022, nearly four years after the studio was formed, Perfect Dark was essentially started over from scratch in Unreal 5. And while the two studios did broadly seem to get along better than in the previous partnership, after a year of high attrition at The Initiative, it was hardly in a state to lead development on a massive project. Crystal Dynamics, well-staffed, began to step into missing leadership roles and take more and more ownership of the project. This once again resulted in disagreements and infighting in departments that had established leaders on The Initiative side.

Xbox’s Perfect Dark Reboot Is Still Years Away - IGN

While a new partnership with Crystal Dynamics appears to finally be bearing fruit, multiple sources who have worked on The Initiative's Perfect Dark reboot recently say that the game is still “in the earliest stages” of development, estimating that it is still roughly two to three years away...

www.ign.com

TLDR -

Certain Affinity were planned to be the co dev before Crystal Dynamics.
The CG trailer was shown before any concept of the game was greed.
Drew Murray going back to Insomniac was seen as the first major exit.
Moving to Unreal 5 added more workload for Crystal Dynamics.
Xbox is "remarkably" hands off with the project.
Game still in pre production.

 

[justiceiro]

Classic Microsoft. That's why they will never be able to build a lasting catalog of IP's.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

To hell with any company doing this.

 

[Gudji]

 

[onnextflix5]

Sounds like it’s in development hell, like many other ms games. has everwild been cancelled yet?

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Development timetables are a social construct.

 

[DonF]

Damn, so they announced it when it was green lit?

 

[Umbasaborne]

Jesus christ the incompetence over at xbox is actually fucking remarkable. Announcing games fucking half a decade before they might come out, idiots

 

[Spitfire098]

Guy bouncing back to insomniac was smart

 

[Stare-Bear]

This is why I don’t understand people celebrating MS buying all these developers. Most of them are worse off and will close within a decade…

 

[Snake29]

Wait for 2025!

 

[SlimySnake]

Absolutely insane. this studio was formed in 2018, right? WTF have they been doing for the last 5 years?

And then they say dont call devs lazy or untalented. this is pathetic.

Phil needs to hire some actual producer and a person who actually does his job and oversees these studios. Devs cant be left unchecked. They dont know everything. its why Hollywood has producers oversee even the best directors to ensure movies are made in 2-3 years.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

This is why I don’t understand people celebrating MS buying all these developers. Most of them are worse off and will close within a decade…

True. I wish Initiative was still independent!

 

[Poltz]

Absolutely insane. this studio was formed in 2018, right? WTF have they been doing for the last 5 years?

And then they say dont call devs lazy or untalented. this is pathetic.

Phil needs to hire some actual producer and a person who actually does his job and oversees these studios. Devs cant be left unchecked. They dont know everything. its why Hollywood has producers oversee even the best directors to ensure movies are made in 2-3 years.

They started the game from scratch in in Unreal 5 in 2022.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Absolutely insane. this studio was formed in 2018, right? WTF have they been doing for the last 5 years?

And then they say dont call devs lazy or untalented. this is pathetic.

Phil needs to hire some actual producer and a person who actually does his job and oversees these studios. Devs cant be left unchecked. They dont know everything. its why Hollywood has producers oversee even the best directors to ensure movies are made in 2-3 years.

 

[Poltz]

True. I wish Initiative was still independent!

Looks at Arkane Austin.

 

[Efren is G.O.A.T.]

Microsoft probably asked them to provide a trailer, no matter how early in development, just to have something to show and keep people excited.

 

[skit_data]

Guess this means we won't see any new games from Crystal Dynamics own IPs this gen

 

[Ozriel]

This is why I don’t understand people celebrating MS buying all these developers. Most of them are worse off and will close within a decade…

They bought up The Initiative?

Microsoft probably asked them to provide a trailer, no matter how early in development, just to have something to show and keep people excited.

That’s pretty much how many games are announced.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Never forget:

The Initiative shows off Xbox boss Phil Spencer playing its unannounced first-party game

He looks like he's having a good time, at least

www.gamesradar.com

 

[Ozriel]

I have no idea how Matt Booty still has a job at Microsoft.
All this talk about management being completely hands off is puzzling. That’s the job right there, resolving conflict and providing leadership.

Hard not to see this as more incompetence.

 

[Efren is G.O.A.T.]

They bought up The Initiative?



That’s pretty much how many games are announced.

Yeah I know. I prefer having the reveal close to the release though.

 

[adamsapple]

Day one, whichever decade it lands in.

 

[Salty Popsicle]

Taking a hands-off approach with all these new studios has obviously not been working out for the Xbox team. I believe a hands-off system only works when the team in question is very tight-nit and has shipped multiple high-quality games under a competent studio leader, similar to Bethesda and Todd Howard. I think Microsoft and Phil Spencer thought getting a handful of proven industry veterans working together and letting them do their thing would be conductive to creating a great new game, but as we know from people like Drew Murray leaving so quickly, not all of these people were really committed to the project. For a new group like the Initiative, sometimes a more forceful hand is needed to at least get the ball rolling.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

2026 game at the earliest

Bummer

I don’t know how you can change vision so many times. It’s perfect dark, use the original as inspiration. It’s not that hard

They tried turning her into a pink haired Karen on a mission in the Middle East to save the environment

Uhhh….wtf?

 

[Sethbacca]

Makes me wonder what Microsoft has actually been doing for the last decade or so beyond making CG trailers. The mismanagement of all these studios and IP is real.

 

[Skifi28]

I wouldn't worry, if it takes too long to release I'm sure they'll buy a couple more publishers to fill the gap.

 

[U n i o n 0015]

The people excited for this will be in retirement homes with plenty of time to play by the time it releases. Masterstroke by Phil Spencer.

 

[Luigi Mario]

The Initiative seems to have been reduced to a support studio and Crystal Dynamics has taken over development in 2022.

 

[Nydius]

Would anyone be surprised if we heard the same story about Indiana Jones? That’s another game that feels like it was revealed WAY too early.

If they’re able to get Avowed, Hellblade 2 and Fable out in 2024, they’ll be okay-ish. But after that, 2025 looks like another waiting year. Wait for Perfect Dark. Wait for Indiana Jones. Wait for Gears 6. Wait for Forza Horizon 6. Wait for Elder Scrolls 6.

 

[killatopak]

Chilling with Metriod Prime 4 I see.

 

[Hugare]

Man, imagine being a developer at Initiative and not shipping a game for 5 years of your life.

Some work was probably done, but not shipping is the same as nothing for your résumé. Soulcrushing.

Game development aint easy, but the incompetence at display here is something else. Microsoft is investing hundreds of millions in these games, so they should be more aware about whats happening.

 

[GHG]

The public announcement of this game was just a thought experiment.

 

[Bartski]

they could use some initiative

 

[RIPN2022]

This has got to be a joke right? They announced this right around the start of this gen. By the rate they are going it could release towards the end of it, or at the very least be a launch title for the next Xbox platform.

 

[Fake]

Why in hell announce a game that take 20 years to make?

 

[TheUndeadGamer]

Guess this means we won't see any new games from Crystal Dynamics own IPs this gen

I’m sure we will get another Tomb Raider before this gen ends.

 

[Kurotri]

Xbox is "remarkably" hands off with the project.

Guys, I think I see the problem.

 

[Luigi Mario]

Never forget:

The Initiative shows off Xbox boss Phil Spencer playing its unannounced first-party game

He looks like he's having a good time, at least

www.gamesradar.com

I still wonder what Phil Spencer was playing that day or if he was playing anything at all?

 

[GHG]

I still wonder what Phil Spencer was playing that day or if he was playing anything at all?

He probably just booted up vampire survivors to play.

 

[Mr Moose]

Phil "I don't like showing things too early... Except for all of these!".

 

[nowhat]

Makes me wonder what Microsoft has actually been doing for the last decade or so beyond making CG trailers. The mismanagement of all these studios and IP is real.

I thought they had pretty much said this publicly already (if not in this exact wording): Microsoft doesn't believe in managing studios and IP, they believe in acquisitions.

 

[DeepEnigma]

The public announcement of this game was just a thought experiment.

A social construct, if you will.

 

[Sethbacca]

I thought they had pretty much said this publicly already (if not in this exact wording): Microsoft doesn't believe in managing studios and IP, they believe in acquisitions.

While I understand what you're saying, the fact that they still haven't taken an active hand in managing the studios at this point is itself a form of mismanagement. There's clearly a massive disconnect occurring and it's obvious it's a failure of leadership to anyone who's worked in corporations for any period of time.

 

[Represent.]

Completely incompetent hacks. How anyone has faith in this company is beyond me.

 

[Daneel Elijah]

They started the game from scratch in in Unreal 5 in 2022.

they restarted the game in 2022. Small difference but pretty significant. Not the same thing but we got GOW in 2018 and Ragnarok in 2023. But Perfect Dark is far from completion. Not judging, but the fact is that creating a new studio is hard. I find it a little weird, but this article hyped me a little about Perfect Dark. The ambition presented in the first part of it described a game that I would like to play. I didn't care about it before. But I do now. The thing is, making a game is hard. Doing it at the level of excellence that can be compared with the best in the industry(Sony, Nintendo,Rockstar...) is even harder. It is clear that Perfect Dark had been revealed way too soon.

I do not think that we can talk about mismanagement in this case. But to explain it better I will try to compare it with Hideo Kojima "new" studio Kojima productions. At a first glance it would be easy to say that just because Kojima created Death Stranding in just 4 years, then Perfect Dark should have done the same, right? But the core team that made the game was there for a long time at Konami. And the studio was created by Konami in April. It got independent in December with Kojima, and got to create Death Stranding with all the help that Sony could give him. Thge most important was that they made the choice to make a game fast, not to try for the moon immediatly. They did not create their own game engine or changed it midway, but took one offered by Sony. They did not iterate a lot, but got a good enough idea and pushed from it. In comparison the ambition of Perfect Dark is to be a blockbuster, a AAAA game, and that is not easy to make. In that regard, we can't complain that Microsoft does not have GOTY, and when they try to create one/ create a studio that want to make a game that can be GOTY, complain that it takes time. As a Sony fan, I have been accoustumed after years of the Cerny method being used in most of their studios as having games with a clear formula, for all the good and bad that it gives them. Doing it differently means loosing time, and that is normal. We can laugh all we want about Microsoft PR being self destructive, but at least they are trying. They really should wait to have a game with solid foundations before showing it off, but I hope that they learned their lesson. And that Perfect Dark is good when it launch.

 

[nowhat]

While I understand what you're saying

I think you don't - what I meant is that they keep throwing $$$ at acquiring studios and publishers, and then don't manage them at all. Which is a complete failure. Like, I was being sarcastic.

 

[Elysium44]

Makes me wonder what Microsoft has actually been doing for the last decade or so beyond making CG trailers. The mismanagement of all these studios and IP is real.

I have buyer's remorse for buying an Xbox Series console. I believed the hype. It's not a good feeling to realise you were had.

 

[Sethbacca]

I think you don't - what I meant is that they keep throwing $$$ at acquiring studios and publishers, and then don't manage them at all. Which is a complete failure. Like, I was being sarcastic.

Ahh then you're right, I totally misread that My b.

 

[tmlDan]

they restarted the game in 2022. Small difference but pretty significant. Not the same thing but we got GOW in 2018 and Ragnarok in 2023. But Perfect Dark is far from completion. Not judging, but the fact is that creating a new studio is hard. I find it a little weird, but this article hyped me a little about Perfect Dark. The ambition presented in the first part of it described a game that I would like to play. I didn't care about it before. But I do now. The thing is, making a game is hard. Doing it at the level of excellence that can be compared with the best in the industry(Sony, Nintendo,Rockstar...) is even harder. It is clear that Perfect Dark had been revealed way too soon.

I do not think that we can talk about mismanagement in this case. But to explain it better I will try to compare it with Hideo Kojima "new" studio Kojima productions. At a first glance it would be easy to say that just because Kojima created Death Stranding in just 4 years, then Perfect Dark should have done the same, right? But the core team that made the game was there for a long time at Konami. And the studio was created by Konami in April. It got independent in December with Kojima, and got to create Death Stranding with all the help that Sony could give him. Thge most important was that they made the choice to make a game fast, not to try for the moon immediatly. They did not create their own game engine or changed it midway, but took one offered by Sony. They did not iterate a lot, but got a good enough idea and pushed from it. In comparison the ambition of Perfect Dark is to be a blockbuster, a AAAA game, and that is not easy to make. In that regard, we can't complain that Microsoft does not have GOTY, and when they try to create one/ create a studio that want to make a game that can be GOTY, complain that it takes time. As a Sony fan, I have been accoustumed after years of the Cerny method being used in most of their studios as having games with a clear formula, for all the good and bad that it gives them. Doing it differently means loosing time, and that is normal. We can laugh all we want about Microsoft PR being self destructive, but at least they are trying. They really should wait to have a game with solid foundations before showing it off, but I hope that they learned their lesson. And that Perfect Dark is good when it launch.

They hyped Redfall and Halo like a AAAA game, so maybe we shouldn't trust anything they say until they prove it