It was reported earlier this week by Video Games Chronicle that Perfect Dark developer The Initiative was having problems with staff turnover, and now some insight from Windows Central has perhaps shed more light on the issues.
According to Windows Central's Jez Corden, the possible reason for the departures stems around a "big disagreement" the team had about how to make the new Perfect Dark, which resulted in two schools of thought:
"I was told from sources I can't mention, trusted sources I should add, that basically there was a big disagreement over how to proceed with Perfect Dark. The way The Initiative was set up was almost in a unique sort of studio format, I don't want to say flat structure, but they did build it to try and explore a different way of making a game studio. Anti-crunch, which is great, and a more sort of democratic development process structure.
The problem with that is there emerged two schools of thought about how to develop Perfect Dark. One of them was, we hire the people in, the other school of thought was, we remain small and build sort of high quality indie level games, but because of the hype surrounding the studio, I don't think Microsoft wanted to let The Initiative be that kind of smaller studio... This conflict between the two schools of thought seems to have resulted in a lot of what we see as the departures now."
In addition, VGC spoke to a variety of former employees earlier this week about the situation at The Initiative, who reportedly "attributed the wave of departures to frustration among senior talent over the direction of the project set down by [studio head] Darrell Gallagher and game director Daniel Neuburger (who himself left the company last month)."
VGC says it's heard the "development hierarchy [was] very ‘top-down’" and this meant "many [former] senior team members were frustrated by this perceived lack of autonomy and didn’t feel heard on key issues such as development priorities, project planning and team staffing." The website's sources say that the introduction of Crystal Dynamics to the project may have triggered an "effective soft reboot", and CD could even now be leading development.
"VGC’s sources agreed that they would be surprised if Crystal Dynamics’ introduction, combined with the significant departures of core staff, hadn’t triggered an effective soft reboot of Perfect Dark and that it was likely still years away from release."
Meanwhile, going back to Jez Corden at Windows Central, he advised on the latest Windows Central Gaming podcast that despite the issues, he's "personally not worried about Perfect Dark now", as he believes the team now have a vision in place and are all working towards a common goal, even though it's been messy up until this point.
Let's hope The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics can find a way to turn this negative press around into a really great game when Perfect Dark finally emerges on the scene, but we might have a few years to wait until that point.
What are your thoughts on all this? Let us know down in the comments section below.
[source youtube.com, via videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 28
What I have been saying since the beginning. Teams need organisation. Organisation needs hierarchy. He even used the same word.
Microsoft studio management needs to improve and be focused with project plans, milestones and completion dates at each stage.
If a company wants to make high end Indie style games that's fine. But Perfect Dark was never going to be an Indie style game!
Also, Microsoft now own Double Fine which makes exactly the sort of games that the Indie side of the Initiative wanted to focus on. Why form a new studio just to do what one is already doing?
All these talks remind me of the old saying "A camel is a horse designed by committee". Having a singular vision can be very important.
So it was the hype, the "AAAA" labelling. Microsoft has not learned from its past mistakes then. The hype around scalebound led to the cancellation of that project, they felt they couldn't meet the hype. They need to stop over hyping things, stop announcing games 10 years in advance. I don't get why they don't just announce the games when they are 6-12 months away from release.
@Chaudy xbox seems to live on the hype. They have some exciting prospects in Fable 4, Avowed, State of Decay 3, Perfect Dark, Elder scrolls 6, Outer Worlds 2
But were announced years ago with no info at all since announcing. God some of these were announced when i was in college still lol
It feels more and more like Microsoft doesn't know what they're doing. People leaving the Initiative left and right. 343 also had development issues and still has issues with delivering future content. No games in the next 9 months besides Starfield (if it doesn't get delayed, which it probably will). And we probably have to wait until June to hear about anything coming in 2023. But hey GamePass is great, am I right?
@JudaiMasters it can be both. You’re right. Microsoft really needs to get their studios together to deliver success. They can’t solely rely on Game Pass long term.
However on the other side… Death’s Door, Tunic, Hitman Trilogy, and many more games can’t be wrong. XGS many not have many hand out this year but I’ll secondly have plenty to enjoy in that time.
At this rate though, I’m concerned how long that term will be. Personally I just want 343 to get their act together a little.
I'm just picturing Crystal Dynamics coming into Initiative's office yelling "We are here to help!...Where is everyone?"
Phil comes up "Hey guys want to lead development on Perfect Dark?"
Crystal Dynamics: "I thought the Initiative was the..."
Phil: "Thanks good luck!" As he runs away.
Crystal Dynamics: "Uhh oh o-kay I guess..."
Crunch is usually the result of mismanagement. Being “anti crunch” while also not having clearly defined goals or leadership is like making a pencil with no lead to fight lead poisoning.
@ParsnipHero I'm just getting frustrated a bit. I've been hearing the same song from Xbox since the One days. Everybody is always saying "It will be better next year" or "Just wait for E3" and it never happens with Xbox. They had a small high with FH5 and Halo infinite in the end of last year but they already lost that momentum since then imo. Now we are in march and there are no games to be seen. Things like Hitman Trilogy, Mass Effect trilogy and Guardians of the Galaxy for Game Pass is great and all but those are games that already were out and are available everywhere. I'm not really seeing this is a win except maybe for a small minority that hasn't played those games yet or couldn't afford it before. Doesn't help that Sony is moneyhatting third party games here and there which makes the situation even more dire.
@JudaiMasters I’m in the same boat. They need to stop talking and start doing. My patience is wearing out.
I feel like Obsidian, Bethesda, and Activision were acquired to teach the rest of Xbox Game Studios how to develop games. For as many studios as they have, they can’t seem to get much to go gold.
Its difficult to know what to think. The Initiative seem to have 'changed' since their original formation and that maybe because of the 'Project' and weight of expectation that comes with it.
Regardless, the end result is ALL that matters and if Perfect Dark turns out as well, all those staff departures will be forgotten. Halo was exceptionally well received at launch despite a very troubled development too - the 'lack' of post release content is more of a testament of its popularity as people are hungry for more. If the game 'sucked', people wouldn't care about more content...
Its a vicious circle too - Gamers want games as soon as possible, devs have to make 'teaser trailers' to recruit the right people to make it, then gamers get 'concerned' the game isn't out within a year and keep demanding 'more' info, putting pressure on Devs/Publishers to 'rush', maybe pushing devs to 'crunch', then the Gamers get critical of crunch culture but still want games immediately...
In an ideal world, the first gamers hear about a game should be in the last few months when the game is going through the final polishing phase so there is still time to get your 'pre-orders' in but not waiting years and years - Like Forza games usually are.
However, its not an ideal world and sometimes, studio's have to release what project they are working on for recruitment before they 'leak' out anyway. Projects that may only be in a 'concept' stage at that point and many years away....
As was said, I don't necessarily think PD is in 'trouble'. Its obviously passed the Point of 'full production' as you don't bring in a 'big' studio with well over 200 employees like Crystal Dynamics unless you are 'ready' to go full steam ahead. Otherwise you'll have staff sat around waiting for the previous work to be 'completed'.
For example,you can't animate a character properly until the Character has been built, can't animate the face until the dialogue has been scripted and recorded etc. Therefore I would think that they are now full steam ahead - may of lost '30' 'Initiative' staff, but gained a LOT when Crystal Dynamics came in and they are ALL familiar with the way Darrell operates!
"the other school of thought was, we remain small and build sort of high quality indie level games, but because of the hype surrounding the studio, I don't think Microsoft wanted to let The Initiative be that kind of smaller studio"
The industry is so frustrating. They see the finishing line. They know it's a finishing line, and continue to run backwards.
Sounds like "too many chiefs, not enough indians" to me. Or "too many cooks in the kitchen." Pick your idiom. When you have that many high-profile developers under the same roof, especially in a creative environment, it's likely to be a train wreck. Everyone has their own vision of what something should be. The fact that they were surprised that development management was "top-down" says it all. Were they all expecting to be in charge?
The Initiative have this "when everyone is a leader, then no one is a leader" issue. A company is a company, whether there are 100 people or 10, and there should always be someone who calls the shots in the end, whether the rest disagrees or not. What TI, and possibly Rare, are lacking is a strong leadership figure.
A lot of people here seem to be stuck on Jez quote, and ignore VGC’s note that the reason many are leaving is precisely that there is a very strict top-down hierarchy structure.
If anything, it sounds the “democracy” style development was the expectation of some of the senior (not high ranking) devs, and they got frustrated when they realized things were mandated from the top ranks with little vote to change things. Or little perceived vote. There is always a chance that they did have a vote, they got outvoted, and felt their vote “didn’t count.”
I hate to say it, but it would appear Microsoft are not very good at organising talent. As they are funding this start up , it was up to them to put a proper working structure in place so it could produce content. You've only got to look at 343 to see that they struggle to get this right.
Its not looking good if they are failing to effectively manage new start ups, when they have two giant behemoth's in Bethusda and Activision that badly need a turn around in their trajectory.
I badly want them to succeed, but I wouldn't bet my own money on it unfortunately...
As for perfect dark, I was interested in what they do, but I didn't like the first title much, and the one thing I definitely don't need on Xbox is yet another first person shooter, so the whole tale is pretty meh..
Fortunately there are teams in both large purchases that can definitely produce winners, like ID and Arkane who will no doubt produce some real bangers for us even if management elsewhere remains 'iffy'.
Sounds like the departures aren't all bad news then - if there was a split due to trying to be "democratic", where half the team wanted to do "quality indie" then it's probably best that half lost and left rather than stay and be unhappy / unproductive.
There's already enough studios in Xbox that can do "quality indie" - the Initiative and a few others were clearly being lined up to take on PlayStation first-party in the quality AAA stakes, so that's what they should be doing.
As anyone works in development knows, overly-idealistic and unpragmatic developers can be a bit of a nightmare to manage and align to business goals and budgets - as you can't always develop exactly what you want for as long as you want regardless of what your customers or budgets want / allow
Sounds like the devs were right to walk, but xbox were right to let them.
@Tharsman I think the start up idea was the flat structure. But I think when Darryl saw it wasn’t getting them where he wanted the project to be it swapped to the top down approach, and then people walked. I say this because they just started leaving this much over the last year or so. And if that structure had been in place at the beginning it would have been before now.
But you are right it seems few people read the VCG article.
This makes no sense to me? It’s quite obvious with the hype and what Microsoft were stating this studio was meant to be a AAAA studio, so surely that meant hiring staff to make the games with, and not an indie studio? Otherwise it’s like a management company and nothing more outsourcing the games to other studios.
Making a new Perfect Dark isn’t actually that hard because the original was so far ahead of its time. They could pilfer loads of ideas from the N64, polish them for modern consoles and it would still be the most innovative FPS on the market.
As an example they could use the variable difficulty objectives where rather than making the AI harder on tougher modes it also gives you more objectives to achieve. The single player should double down on the spy schtick, perhaps taking a cue from Hitman and having larger levels where Joanna has to sneak in and achieve her objectives around some sort of event.
No rush now anyway.
FPS is covered BIG time on Xbox, with Halo and Bethesda games, plus with COD once that deal is cleared.
Take all the time they need.
@XxEvilAshxX Exactly that, it was called an AAAA studio because of the sheer total of incredible resumés the people had (have) on that team, all of them seniors I believe, from the likes of Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Crystal Dynamics... It looked like the dream team, but with so much "alpha's" in the room, no wonder it doesn't always work....
@JudaiMasters Xbox is doomed, or was it Nintendo? Whatever.
Honestly all these people leaving is a good thing. It's better to get them out and let a different team handle it than have 30 people all trying to ham-fist their own ideas into something to that they can feel good about themselves. Design By Commitee never works.
@fbnaulin
You forgot the Sony haters too.
MS currently has 23 studios, there is bound to be drama in a few of them. Especially one that was in the complete forming stage. People signed onto the studio with ideas of how it would and should work, once they chose a direction there was turnover... That is how things roll. You look at any studio that sets a direction that either wasn't in place yet or changes the direction of an existing studio. There is bound to be senior, intermediate and low level turnover.
Tap here to load 28 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...