During the Game Awards 2020, Microsoft unveiled Perfect Dark, reboot from the famous franchise of FPS of Rarebut in development, we will find the young studio The Initiative, which had recruited industry veterans in the months leading up to the announcement. But since, Crystal Dynamicsdeveloper of recent tomb Raidercame to lend a hand to The Initiative. And obviously, he does a little more than lend a hand.
As reported VGC, LinkedIn is full of very interesting information on the state of The Initiativewhich is not in its best shape. Last year it lost at least 34 developersincluding game director Dan Neuburger, design director Drew Murray, the lead level designer Chris O’Neill, the world’s leading builder Jolyon Myers, two senior system designersthree former designers of god of war and more recently the main writers, the technical director, the artistic technical director, the lead gameplay engineerthe animation manager or the Quality & Assurance manager. A real carnage, The Initiative now only has about fifty employeesit recruited only 12 last year and three positions are still vacant.
These mass departures therefore began after the arrival of Crystal Dynamics on the development of Perfect Darkand according to the information collected by VGCthe studio would take much more importance than expected in the creation of the game. Former developers of The Initiative evoke a loss of creative freedom and a creative process slowed down by these “fast and furious” departures. In addition, the team complains about Darrell Gallagher, director of The Initiative, and Dan Neuburger, who make the creative decisions between them, without leaving freedom to the developers. Now Gallagher is alone at the helm and he shared a statement to VGC :
It’s no small task 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.
According to developers interviewed by VGCeveryone agrees that this complicated management, the presence of Crystal Dynamics and team departures go greatly affect the development of Perfect Dark, which should not see the light of day for several years. A hard blow for the fans… The other opuses of the franchise are as a reminder present in the Xbox Game Passthe subscription costs €29.99 for three months.
| Clint008 Writer – Tester |
