When The Initiative studio was created from scratch by Microsoft, it was regularly talked about because of the many important recruitments it made. But a few years later, things look quite different with the departure of many people from the core of the studio. Complications which find explanations today if we are to believe the feedback from VGC who was able to speak with several developers.
Talents leave the studio
According to the magazine’s count, almost half of the core team in charge of developing Perfect Dark left the company in the last 12 months alone. Thus, at least 34 people would have left The Initiative according to their LinkedIn profiles.
As noted, The Initiative lost Dan Neuburger (Game Director) this month and we also remember the departure of Drew Murray (Design Director) in February 2021. Chris O’Neill (Design Director) also left last December, as did Jolyon Myers (Principal World Builder) a month later. Kai Zheng, Principal Level Designer, also left the studio last October.
The rather sudden departure of all these profiles is not really a good sign as to the holding of the Perfect Dark project currently in development at The Initiative. Several recruited profiles had notably worked for Sony in the renowned Santa Monica studio, developer of the God of War series.
A project that is not moving fast enough and not enough creative autonomy
Interviews with several former senior developers cited lack of creative autonomy, slow development progress, or lack of listening to key issues as reasons for their departures, and described the wave of departures as “quick and furious”, the momentum of the project being “strongly affected”, according to the same sources.
Last September, Microsoft announced that Crystal Dynamics (Tomb Raider) allait aider The Initiative to develop the next Perfect Dark, a surprising announcement when you know that Crystal Dynamics is a studio that belongs to Square Enix. Darrell Gallagher, studio director, is obviously confident about the rest of the operations.
It’s no small feat to build a studio and reinvent a beloved franchise. In creating The Initiative, we have decided to leverage co-development partnerships to achieve our ambitions, and we are truly delighted with all the progress we are seeing in our relationship with Crystal Dynamics.
On this journey it is not uncommon for there to be staff changes, particularly during a time of global upheaval over the past two years, and there is still a lot of work ahead of us to deliver a fantastic experience. Perfect Dark to our players.
We wish all our former colleagues the best, and I have faith in the team we have in place, the new talent joining us, and we look forward to sharing more with the fans.
When we read this message and the fact that there is still “a lot of work” on the new Perfect Dark, we think that the release of the game should not take place anytime soon. Several former members of The Initiatives said they were “surprised at Microsoft’s indulgence in the lack of progress” on the game.