Half of Perfect Dark development team leave

According to reports from the Video Game Chronicle (VGC) as much as half of the core development team working on the upcoming Perfect Dark reboot have quit in the last year.

This comes after analysis done on the LinkedIn profiles of Xbox’s The Initiative studio’s (the developers of the game) employees, which revealed around 34 people have left the team.

This includes members of The Initiative’s senior design team, such as game director Dan Neuburger, design director Drew Murray, lead level designer Chris O’Neill and more.

The timing of the departures coincides with the September 2021 announcement that Crystal Dynamics had been signed to co-develop Perfect Dark.

And considering the lack of roles currently being advertised by The Initiative, it suggests that Crystal Dynamics may be taking a much stronger lead on the project than initially thought,

However, in an exclusive interview with VGC, The Initiative’s management is said to be confident in the current team they have in place and the new talent set to join.

“It’s no small task to build a studio and reinvent a beloved franchise,” studio head Darrell Gallagher told VGC.

“In creating The Initiative, we set out to leverage co-development partnerships to achieve our ambitions, and we’re really excited about all the progress we’re seeing with our relationship with Crystal Dynamics.”

“In this journey, it’s not uncommon for there to be staffing changes, especially during a time of global upheaval over the last two years, and there’s plenty more work in front of us to deliver a fantastic Perfect Dark experience to our players.”

“We wish all our former colleagues the very best, and I’m confident in the team we have in place, the new talent joining, and we can’t wait to share more with the fans,” Gallagher concluded