Xbox Studio The Initiative Is Making A New Perfect Dark

Never played any of the original games, looking forward to this one!

What a RARE sight!

Very exciting! This was definitely the game I was most curious about over at Xbox, and this reveal did not disappoint. Looks like an epic single player game that Xbox could really use.

Never played perfect dark. Now I have a reason to!

That was a cool trailer. Looking forward to it.

Yes!!! This is what I was hoping they would reveal at the show. Perfect! 😁

Perfect Dark - Can't Wait!

So much for "you should temper your expectations".

@Kefka2589 @Grumblevolcano yeah this is a pretty good announcement for that sort of remark!

I was hoping for a new ip but this looked amazing! 2022-23 is gonna be stacked for Xbox

If you watch the full developer interview video (only about 3-4 minutes long), they drop hints that it will stay in first-person like the classic games.

@xMightyMatt14x

I agree! Once all of these studios start pumping out games, it’s gonna be a non-stop landslide of 1st party. Xbox has a great future ahead! 😁

Loved the original Perfect Dark even as the N64 with expansion pack was bursting at the seams trying to render it. Can’t wait for this one.

The potential of Perfect Dark is huge and this studio is great. I'm quite excited about all these new Xbox games! Perfect Dark, Fable, Avowed, Everwild...

Now I just need Banjo-Kazooie to be completely happy.

Wow... The back half of this gen is going to require additional jobs.......

Wait, game pass, nvm. Less work needed, more time needed!

@Grumblevolcano Nintendo: we've new things to announce later in the year

Later: random mini games and spinoffs announced on Twitter.

Sony: we believe in generations, psvr is forward compatible, bc works for 99%

Later: ehh... More or less.

Microsoft:. Temper expectations, we don't have much to announce.

Later: nevermind, RARE REBOOTS INCOMING!!1

All we need is valve to say hl3 open world 2021.

By far the best announcement at the game awards..

In all honesty, its not as big as last years full console reveal and, like Playground making Fable, wasn't exactly a 'surprise' to hear that the Initiative were rebooting Perfect Dark.

This was essentially officially confirming what many have known for months now and even expected to have heard long before now. Its another of those industry insider leaks that MS have chosen not to officially confirm for months - like the Series S, Fable etc.

I am not saying its not 'exciting' but its not like we got a lot of completely unexpected and unknown announcements so it was right to 'temper' expectations. As far as I am concerned, the games industry didn't really announce a lot tonight - and a lot of the 'big' game trailers were nothing more than CGI teasers - Perfect Dark, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Callisto Protocol...

A lot to look forward to but not a lot of actual game-play to be excited for - just a lot to 'imagine' on what we 'want' from these games and 'hope' they don't disappoint...

When the first rumour about this came out I wasn't looking forward much because I never played the game before. Then I decided to play it on Xbox through BC and finished the game. After that, I started to be more excited about the rumours. I'm really happy it's now confirmed and to know we'll be able to play this day one on game pass is amazing as well.

Hope this is a complete reboot that does not require any previous exposure to the IP.

Never played the old games, but seen enough clips of cartoony big head aliens to know this game needs to stand on its own two feet.

This is really cool news, looking forward to it a lot. Xbox had a good night in general, the Yakuza fans are freaking out as this means a PC release too.

@nessisonett Yakuza getting the full series on Xbox was, for me, the biggest news.

I just bought the collection on sale for PS4 thinking it might never come to Xbox. Now I'll just keep it sealed and get a digital copy for Xbox once these arrive (I'm definitely paying for these even if they get into GamePass.)

the only genuine surprise of the entire game awards for me, MS have left PD on the shelf for to long hopefully its a better game than Zero was

Xbox is going to be amazing in a few years with Avowed, Fable and now Perfect Dark (and a finished next gen Cyberpunk). Perfect Dark is a series with a lot of unfulfilled potential, the version on Rare Replay is still a great game and one I find more interesting than pretty much any modern day shooter

I loved Perfect Dark on the N64, countless hours on local multiplayer with friends was great.

Honestly though, this doesn’t excite me that much. I’d rather see new IP rather than a name that relies on nostalgia. At least they seem to be focusing on taking it in a new direction and that could be interesting if they do it right.

Seriously confused. All the comments saying Xbox had amazing night with all the reveals but I can only see one article about Perfect Dark. Is there more info incoming shortly? I don't usually watch these things but look forward to the articles to read on here afterwards. Possibly will have to lower my standards and head over to other publishing companies for my updates....no I can wait...

@FraserG Sorry - it wasn't criticism - just wondering if there was more to come or not. As my comment mentioned, I'm happy to wait, it was just that everyone was commenting about stuff I hadn't yet heard about so was wondering what I'd missed.
Looking forward to the drip feeding of updates. It's what gets me through my day at work.
Also should say thanks for the hard work you guys do! Much appreciated.

Why it isn't made by Rare?

@Lajt It could be made by Rare but the idea here is to reboot the series and the people working at The Initiative are developers that have worked on modern story-driven games. I wish Rare worked on their own IPs and not just new IPs, though. It's a shame that Banjo-Kazooie doesn't have a new game since 2008.

@BlueOcean I looked at the reviews of their current games and maybe it is good that Perfect Dark was moved to other studio. And I see that Rare are working on Everwild

@Lajt Sea of Thieves is a great game but it lacked content in the beginning like other games this generation. Yes, they're working on Everwild.

This was all I needed to see in last nights show! Very very happy for this game, an espionage game at last! We haven’t had one for years and years, no Splinter Cell, no decent Metal Gear sneak game.. finally we will be getting a high end next gen game from this genre! This pretty much blew everything Sony showed away.. I then just ‘barely’ stayed awake to see the rest of the show, it finished around 3:30 to 4AM here in the U.K.! Got today off work though so I had a lye in.

@Lajt Rare has its hands full, and even if they didn't, Rare is not the same Rare that made the first Perfect Dark. By now its a whole new team. Rare making the game would be little more than marketing stunt.

Rare went through a rough time when Don Mattrick basically shoe-horned them into writing Kinect software. They lost their top talent. They seem to be back in force with Sea of Thieves and Everwild, it just isnt the same people.

Was thinking more about this game last night, and now cant stop hoping the game be heavily inspired by Deus Ex (even if its third person.)

Now this should definitely be one to look forward to, about time 😂🎄🎄🎄

This game got me sooooo hyped!
If they also bring a high quality killer instinct xbox is the console of the century lol.

@Menchi Ok, you win the "worst fanbase" debate. I'm reading the NL article on this game (which admittedly has no purpose being on NL since it doesn't involve anything Nintendo related, other than troll bait), but the sheer amount of "this is Microsoft trying to keep games off other platforms!" and "This will kill the franchise being stuck on a console nobody owns, it should go to Switch where people care!" garbage is infuriating. It feels like a red-themed Push Square in that thread.

@NEStalgia Told you they were the worst

Edit: After all, Nintendo is ruining Starfox and F zero, just trying to keep it off other platforms! /s

@Menchi LOL. Still a hard call between the PS and Nintendo audiences IMO....it's just that PS has more occasion to mobilize the keyboard warriors more often. But yeah, that was PS-level "Microhshoft is taeking awah teh gaemes!" comment section over there.

I love the series and I'm really excited for this reboot. WTF are Rare up to these days though??? They still make games right?

@__jamiie everwild

@xMightyMatt14x @__jamiie Everwild....the game so new and different, even they don't know what it actually is, yet.....

And of course Sea of Thieves which probably consumes most of their resources doing the whole GaaS thing.

I would love a reboot rather than a continuation because the original hasn’t really aged well

@The-Sega-KiD it seems like the specific people they’ve been hiring for this studio aren’t the type for a service or multiplayer game. They’re people from naughty dog, Sony Santa Monica, Crystal Dynamics (Tomb Raider crew) and so on. I think we can all expect a single player, story driven game. But to be sure, the quality of that experience has yet to be determined.

@NEStalgia

I just went & checked out the Nintendo Life article you are referring to. And 😳.

Switch fans are crazy if they think this new PD will run on the Switch. 😂

They are just starved for games over there that aren’t Nintendo 1st party & some Japanese games that I can barely pronounce. And most of them still live in the 90’s.

So they get salty when they see this Perfect Dark re-boot news. All of their heads would probably explode if Xbox got a new Banjo game. 🤣

@xMightyMatt14x They just seem to have a ridiculously low output these days. It makes me sad.

@NEStalgia I just don't understand why they have such a low output. It seems crazy.

@__jamiie are we talking about the same thing? I was talking about the studio the initiative. Which, yes, has a very low output considering they’ve never released a game yet.

@xMightyMatt14x I'm talking about Rare.

@__jamiie gotcha. I see now I was looking at a different point in the conversation. My bad. But yeah hopefully we get some surprise side projects from them. Banjo 3 done with the same
Care crash 4 just got would be cool.

@xMightyMatt14x Agreed. Anything at this point would be welcome. Personally I'd love them to do a complete overhaul of one of their older franchises like Jet Force Gemini or Blast Corps.

@NEStalgia Remember that awesome Phantom Dust reboot?

Yeah, me neither.

@__jamiie such is GaaS... Basically mmo with a less awful payment model, but most of their time is spent adding continuous content to one or two games.

@KelticDevil even Masahiro Sakurai told people to buy an Xbox to play Banjo! Lol. That's probaly why xsxs sold better than usual in the Japan launch

Yeah that nl thread is one of the bigger dumpster fires aside from the threads that go political. Then again nl feeds the trolls by posting Xbox news that has nothing to do with Nintendo since the 90s.

Switch's problem is Nintendo's released almost nothing first party, this year, though i always expected that to be the case... Why launch games that will try crowded out of the news by new ps & xb hardware? But the fans are in defensive wiiu mode now.

@__jamiie

Or......they could just keep doing what they are doing because it seems to be working & it’s what the people at the studio are passionate about.

Sea Of Thieves is a huge hit. And we’ll see about Everwild.

Rare is just fine the way they are. Microsoft forcing them to work on old IPs that they don’t want to work on (especially when most of those people are long gone) is ridiculous.

People who live in the 90’s & think Microsoft “ruined Rare” probably haven’t even played most of their games since the N64. And it’s a tired narrative. 🙄

@KelticDevil I have played their games since the N64 and they've been lukewarm at best. Nobody bought an Xbox for Sea of Thieves regardless of how much of a 'hit' it was. Rare have a ton of IP that people would buy an Xbox for and it seems massively stupid to ignore that. If Rare don't want to make games for their own IP then Microsoft should step in and farm them out to other 1st party studios as they did with Killer Instinct and now Perfect Dark. For a console that's perceived to have a lack of strong exclusive titles compared to the competition, it's baffling.

@__jamiie

I disagree with you about Rare. They made some great 360 games, in my opinion. And Sea Of Thieves IS a big hit, not WAS. Obviously, we’ll see about Everwild.

And Microsoft has farmed out their IP. You mentioned Killer Instinct. And we just got a new Battletoads game. And now Perfect Dark.

I get that everyone wants a new Banjo game, but what other IP could they farm out to get everyone excited? I would love to see a new Viva Piñata, but if no studios want to make it & with the quality of the past, then why do it?

I like that Microsoft lets their studios make the games that they want. At least Mattrick is long gone & not making Rare make Kinect games anymore.

@KelticDevil I completely agree that devs should be allowed to make what it wants. A new Banjo game would sell like absolute hotcakes and with the resurgence of interest in games like Crash and Spyro I think it could be a genuine system seller. And Conker to a lesser extent. I also think that a Blast Corps remake/sequel would be amazing with current gen technology. And yes, the Kinect s*** still upsets me too. It's also depressing that the initial game is their biggest selling game.

@__jamiie

They could just buy Playtonic Games & let them loose on the Banjo franchise? There are ex Rare developers there & they already make Yooka Laylee, which is basically a Banjo clone.

I don’t think we’ll ever see another Conker game, though.