Oh sweetie, these are so sorrowing! Xbox has just dropped another bombshell: The Initiatve is shut down immediately, and Perfect Dark rebooting is officially canceled. All of this at the height of Microsoft’s layoff frenzy, which has grave impacts on the gaming industry.
Historically, the company intended The Initiative to be Xbox’s “AAAA” Studio-that is four A’s, it’s not a typo. Working on the rebooting of a legendary N64 spy shooter where in the good days, gamers sneaked about with gadgets and shot the bad guys. In the good days, the reboot was doing great with all the hype, especially after the CGI trailer release. But, well, Now Pfft.
The gamers are, of course, not happy. The responses are a combination of frustration, disappointment, and outright confusion. One gamer, @GRIMMYRAX, called it “7 years wasted,” just like Firewalk Studio’s Concord, another big-name flop. However, some, like @Felipe99946036, pointed out the greater tragedy-the loss by a large number of people of their jobs. Ouch.
Now, let’s talk about Joanna Dark. Some, like @BJAtweeter, plainly said they “just couldn’t vibe with the redesign” and called her “a manly woman with Chad Jaw.” Is it too harsh? Maybe. But hey, character design really does matter when you will be staring at it for hours. Others were left sad just thinking about that project dying, especially since they were fans of the original N64 title. @Genki_JPN who actually broke the story put it as: “As a fan of the OG… this is very sad.”
What happened after? According to @forcecaster, the game really started to come together only after the involvement of Crystal Dynamics; previously, The Initiative really wasn’t getting anything going. Now, after being locked in development hell for years, this is it.
This is not Xbox’s first time to axe a big project, but this one might just be the easiest to call the biggest cancellation in recent memory, and with the recent history of Xbox-especially throwing redflags in the direction of Redfall-players have begun to ask: Is there trouble in the first-party line?
Now, it’s one down for Perfect Dark. So, fingers crossed for the devs. Maybe someday, another studio tries to resurrect the franchise. For now, though? Set your time to N64.
-and hey, at least Final Fantasy XVI and VII Rebirth are still coming to Xbox. A silver lining, right?
