Xbox Reportedly Cancels Perfect Dark Reboot, Developer Shut Down

Xbox has reportedly cancelled its reboot of Perfect Dark and shut down developer The Initiative as a result. Xbox has been heavily criticized over the years for not being able to match PlayStation’s first-party output, despite having big marquee franchises like Halo and Gears of War. As a result, Xbox invested many billions of dollars in trying to play catch up by purchasing huge industry talent and franchises with Activision Blizzard (the publisher of Call of Duty and Diablo) and ZeniMax (the company responsible for Fallout and The Elder Scrolls). Now, after a rocky generation with the Xbox Series X|S, Xbox is once again carrying out mass layoffs.

A handful of Xbox projects have been reportedly cancelled including Rare’s Everwild and an unannounced MMO from the team behind The Elder Scrolls Online, but Windows Central and The Verge have both reported on one of the most devastating cancellations yet: Perfect Dark. The game was announced back in 2020 with new developer The Initiative helming the new reboot. The studio was comprised of industry veterans, including the former director of Marvel’s Wolverine, who were going to bring the acclaimed franchise back into the spotlight as a premiere Xbox title. Unfortunately, it won’t see the light of day as Perfect Dark has been cancelled and the studio was shut down as well. Per Windows Central, the news was announced internally by Xbox executive Matt Booty.

“We have made the decision to stop development of Perfect Dark and Everwild as well as wind down several unannounced projects across our portfolio,” reads a partial quote from Booty’s leaked memo. “As part of this, we are closing one of our studios, The Initiative. These decisions, along with other changes across our teams, reflect a broader effort to adjust priorities and focus resources to set up our teams for greater success within a changing industry landscape. We did not make these choices lightly, as each project and team represent years of effort, imagination, and commitment.”

The Initiative’s shut down comes without the studio releasing a single game. Xbox announced the formation of the developer at E3 2018 as a “AAAA” studio, suggesting its games would be very prestigious and high caliber. After years of silence, Perfect Dark was formally revealed with a gameplay demo last summer. It was one of the highlights of Xbox’s offerings that year and became one of the platform’s most anticipated games going forward. Unfortunately, it will be yet another great looking Xbox game to never see the light of day, joining the ranks of other games like Scalebound. Perfect Dark was being co-developed by Crystal Dynamics, but that studio is not under Xbox’s ownership, so it’s unclear if they will suffer from any layoffs as a result of the project being cancelled.