The year is 2020, The Game Awards have just concluded, and some of the next great AAA titles have been announced to the world. It’s a giant production, including celebrity appearances from stars such as Keanu Reeves and Gal Gadot, and for a brief time it helps viewers forget about the COVID-19 pandemic right outside their doors. Some of the most exciting games revealed, which will surely enter game of the year talks, include: Ark 2, an untitled Mass Effect game, and a little Xbox reboot called Perfect Dark. Xbox further explains The Initiative, a video game development company that is a division of Xbox Game Studios, will be calling the shots and bringing Perfect Dark back from the dead. The stage is set, the classic Nintendo 64 title will make its return to a next-gen console, The Initiative has staff coming from the best development teams in the country, and for a moment all is well in the world.
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Now fast forward nearly three years later, and while none of the previously mentioned titles have been released, Perfect Dark may be the furthest from completion. The Initiative, which was founded in 2018, is based in Santa Monica, California and was given its first task of making a new installment to the Perfect Dark franchise. The reason for the creation of the developer was to provide Xbox with more AAA titles that could be used to compete with competitors. When the announcement for Perfect Dark was made at The Game Awards, a CGI trailer was exhibited to showcase the game, but was simply a way to get fans excited. The developer had no idea at the time what kind of game it was going to make or even how the gameplay itself would work.
What Kind of Problems Has The Initiative Faced in Bringing Perfect Dark to Life?
Darrell Gallagher, former chief of Crystal Dynamics and current studio head of The Initiative, has explained that since the company’s conception, Microsoft had big plans. One of the concerns that Gallagher seems to have had in the beginning is that The Initiative was being pushed to develop a massive franchise. Some employees recall the series they were set to create was meant to be so monumental and cutting edge the label “AAAA” had been thrown around. This world placed on the shoulders of staffers at The Initiative was excessively large, given the relatively small size of the studio. In 2022, the total number of employees at The Initiative was 56 people. In comparison, Santa Monica Studio, the video game developer behind God of War and God of War: Ragnarök had 400 employees in 2022.
In the beginning, those at The Initiative appear to have approached the Perfect Dark undertaking with great motivation. There was a clear hierarchy of leadership, a plan to flesh out themes of espionage and spycraft, and a desire to create a cinematic game that would call back to great films in the James Bond and Mission Impossible franchises. This was an unsurprising direction given the fact that the developer of the original Perfect Dark game, Rare, helmed the classic title GoldenEye 007. All of the ideas existed, but putting the plan into action proved to be more challenging than anticipated. While some difficulties and trips back to the drawing board are expected in video game development, the years passed with no reprieve and leadership struggled to commit. Some employees even complained that there was no appropriate method to voice concerns or communicate feedback over their troubles. One unidentified employee of The Initiative has been quoted saying,
“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. I don’t know why people just kept hitting the reset button…“
The ever changing balance of organization might be one of the key issues The Initiative has faced thus far. Initially, there was a partnership with Certain Affinity, a much larger studio, and the two were intended to work together as co-developers. This led to mass confusion between conflicting sources of authority on a senior level. Further problems resulted due to the COVID-19 pandemic because of a break down in communication between remote workers and those who remained in the office. Finally, a year after The Game Awards, a somewhat cohesive concept existed and was put together, only for Certain Affinity and The Initiative to end their partnership. The Initiative’s staff was cut in half and several others chose to leave as the developer desperately needed workers for the next phase of Perfect Dark.
What Is the Current State of Development for The Initiative and Perfect Dark?
Even with clear issues on display at the departure of Certain Affinity, Darrell Gallagher and Microsoft Studios head, Matt Booty, were trying to put out fires and encourage staffers that the future was bright. There was clearly a revolving door of employees and something needed to change. In September 2021, Crystal Dynamics entered the chat and began a partnership with The Initiative. Reports indicate that although three years of work had already been made on the project, Crystal Dynamics had a big job ahead. Perfect Dark needed a bigger team and a complete overhaul which would dramatically change the entirety of the game. While it appears Crystal Dynamics now has the Xbox title on track, it is running full speed ahead with tight deadlines and a mountain of work to be done.
The current state of affairs in the partnership with Crystal Dynamics seems to be looking up for the team working on Perfect Dark. After all this time, the title is still considered in pre-production by most however, despite this delay, Matt Booty sees the importance in middle-ground studios like The Initiative. As major news involving Microsoft and the Federal Trade Commission continues to develop over the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, executives at Microsoft need to know the company can do more than buy out other entities. It appears Microsoft is even willing to let a game developer go years without producing an adequate project, if it means a newly created studio is the one doing the work.
Is Microsoft’s experiment with The Initiative just a growing pain for a new studio, or does this further show the company’s inability make games without buying out established developers? Make sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!
Source: IGN
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