Perfect Dark Developer Responds To 'Big Controversy' Over 2024 Gameplay Trailer

Why put fake stuff in the trailer then??
Just show actual gameplay of how the game will be white lies are still lies 🥺

So...it's only partially fake but heavily scripted-like? Nice. 🙄 In regards to it being in-engine, wasn't the same thing said about the recent The Witcher 4 reveal...

This all makes little difference to my viewpoint.

So, it was just, um, 65% fake. This is disappointing to learn.

Most of these sorts of "gameplay trailers" are some kind of fake, like the Witcher not-4 tech demo being "playable" but the person with the controller didn't actually have any direct control over Ciri

I don't think he's helped his case, to be honest, should've just kept quiet.

@DarthAmmii He hasn't helped at all. Let alone going on about the huge chunk of time it spent in development hell. Like I said elsewhere - MS seem to have targeted those dragging their heels with projects stuck in ridiculously long development cycles. Rightly so IMO.

@DarthAmmii I don't think he has a case he's trying to help. He's gaslighting a bit sure but all he's doing is saying I worked on this it was playable but fake bits were thrown in to get the trailer out there. Blokes probably just lost his job so he's going to throw stones now. Can't blame him.

Who green lit that trailer knowing it is the bigger question.

@FraserG so may be a case of bloke may have lost his job couldn't talk about it due to NDAs now that's null and void he is now throwing stones.

Makes what he says a bit less weighty but still raises the question of who green lit the trailer going out. Can blame the Devs for adding the fake segments in there but someone signed off airing that.

Even based on his description, it still seems like its years away, not months. For a Studio that's over 7yrs Old now and still has produced absolutely nothing that can be sold to generate revenue. Its already been delayed multiple times and even drafted in Crystal Dynamics to try and get this game on Track.

The fact that this, whether it is actual game-play or doctored to make it seem much further along but more representative of the ambition, is clearly years away is a major problem - that's years of more Costs - not just paying the Initiative, but also a 3rd Party Studio and despite getting in that 3rd Party Studio and delaying the release window to help get the Game back on track, its still not coming within the next year.

Anyone who tried to play that slice themselves would quickly realise something isn't 'right' and that they were still a LONG way from a Release, a long way from having a Product on the market to recuperate the Costs already invested. It mislead the Gamers who believed the game was much closer to releasing and probably led their boss (Matt Booty head of Studios) to believe things were progressing well.

whatever man. wasn’t gonna be better than PDZ anyway. i plan on playing it again sometime over the summer to show love to a classic

Its still pretty revealing that a minute of footage was so doctored just to be shown. It clearly wasn't just showing the best parts of a largely playable version. They struggled to get a minute of footage to show. This game was never in a good place.

It's not surprising that this game was canceled. Brand new studios are very hard to start up and a huge reason why buying studios is so much better.

I don't get it. Just show gameplay straight up gameplay....but no everything has to be doctored and made fake..... and you wonder why we dont trust publishers and devs....

It was a tech demo, just like the Witcher 4. The Witcher 4 was "in-engine" and an actually playable vertical slice. It's exactly the same situation. If you called the Witcher 4 a "gameplay reveal" that would be pretty bold.

Fake trailers have become industry standard. People might need reminding that even Hellblade 2 didn't truly exist when that giant trailer was released, and instead sequence was backported into the actual game after the fact.
It's disappointing but not unusual.

Someday they'll make a documentary about the unbelievable level of incompetence that Xbox was run at. The number of cancelations, the games that came out in horrible shape, the massive delays, the games launching on every platform BUT Xbox, the lies,the disinterest from Microsoft, the constant changes of direction. There's a 10-part series here!

My takeaway from yesterday is that they canceled two games that were not going to make it to release in a reasonable time frame if they did at all. Games that already have had long development cycles and almost nothing to show for it. Games in very bad states.

Sometimes it doesn't work out, they definitely tried to make it work in both cases. I bet cancelations happen a lot more than we realize behind the scenes. Maybe don't reveal games until there is a little more validity to their existence. Had they not shown us that these games exist, they might have cut the cord much earlier and they would be years into the next project instead of square one or shut down.

So maybe it was a lot further behind in development than it looked.

Especially the part of you didn’t play it like they did it went a bit wrong.

Oh! Only some of it is fake?

That's OK then.

What a farce!

@Ricky-Spanish didn't you read his article?He explained it.
This game was far from finished and they had to show something. So the guy in the video played it the way, it was showable.

@Ricky-Spanish because of scalebound. They put real stuff in and it looked awful, feedback was bad and within the month after showing it, it was canned

The protagonist had man chin.

@Nintendo4Sonic I know I'm not blaming that dude because obviously the decision to make a "gameplay" trailer was over his head but I don't like that type of thing like the watch dogs original trailer i don't like being shown version of the game that isn't really gameplay of what you would expect of in the final product!

Reminds me of when the Killzone trailer for the PS3 was released. Sony was saying "in game engine" and "actual gameplay". When the game came out, I could not stop laughing between the differences. Since then, until I play a game, it's not the game.

When we see trailers of upcoming videos I’m sure we’ve all seen loads of “fake” parts to emphasise what the game will be in the future and end up with “real” parts.

Remember these games are NOT FINISHED and in ACTIVE DEVELOPMENT.

I'm having a hard time, getting excited by anything "AAA" , these days.
The entire industry is such a mess, that I'm hoping for a spectacular 1983 styled crash again.
It does feel like it has begun.

So he is saying it was fake but it wasn't extra super fake? By the sounds of that he is admitting what they did have was barely fit to be shown off to begin with. This is why I am against showing trailers years in advance of a game even possibly being released as there is a high chance that what they are showing isn't actually a game

Isnt this how Halo 2 E3 demo was? It was "gameplay", but scripted and although the person was "playing", he had to hit the marks exactly otherwise it would crash.
Which is why it was never released as playable to the public until recently

It’s not fake… but here’s all the ways that it’s fake.

@-taco Just what I was thinking of. In this case, the enemy AI was probably really dopey, and if you went "off-script", they'd probably just stand there, swinging their fists at the air or something. Still technically real, but it gives the impression of the game being further along than it actually was.

See also: Sonic Adventure with its Autodemo in 1998. The game was technically playable by that point, but it was set up to play back the staff members' own gameplay performances, as allowing anyone else to play it would reveal all of the cracks in the collision detection, etc... come to think of it, that held true even in the retail release!

In all three of these cases, it was actual in-engine gameplay, and nothing like the outright fake CGI for Killzone.

@BAMozzy “It mislead the Gamers who believed the game was much closer to releasing and probably led their boss (Matt Booty head of Studios) to believe things were progressing well”

If that slice is the only thing Matt Booty bothered to look at in 7 years of development he deserves to be sacked. It’s even worse if that’s the only thing
he saw and then had no further questions because it was quite clearly not pure gameplay. Xbox have, once again, mismanaged their studios and no amount of blaming the devs will change that.

I was turned off by the parkour and overall style of the trailer. It just didn't work for me. But I was patient, knowing the game was far off from release. Sadly, we waited for nothing in the end.

@smoreon That’s exactly how I believe this was created.

I don’t think it’s an uncommon thing to do. So long as they actually plan to release what they’re showing, I don’t personally think this is as bad as people make it out to be. Theyre showcasing what their game will be (or would’ve been).
Should they be more transparent? Maybe, but it doesn’t really bother me.

I haven’t kept close tabs on this game reveal so someone correct me if I’m missing why this is so terrible

@armondo36

I'd watch that!

@-taco

meow

@TheGiraffe * giraffe sounds *

"Theres some fake stuff in it"

Stopped reading right there.

@GeeEssEff Not just that slice but no doubt spun the story the game was progressing well - Matt Booty has to manage quite a few Studios so probably was being fed back that things were going well by the Studio head and may have believed they were seeing something better than it was if they can doctor the game play to play a specific way to ensure it runs - couple that with Managers reporting that things are progressing you don't know what they show to try and convince managers to keep funding their studio, keep believing the Progress reports, keep giving them extensions and have something to show them when they do visit. I'm sure that's why they kept getting support until it became very apparent what they had was a long way from where it needed to be, let alone where MS expect it be. Its already had delays so Matt Booty would likely be why the Studio is no longer here more than Phil Spencer.

My point was that Studio Heads may show there boss those clips as 'progress' reports so they get more time/funding, a 'delay' in their release because they have the game this 'close', and then find out they're a lot further away than the delays they've already had it adds up.

The initiative has been plagued by internal strife since its formation and the Studio head is responsible for the Studio and management of the Studio, Matt Booty is Studio Manager, the person those Studio managers go to when they need extra time or extra staff, and who will greenlight what project they work on, their deadlines and expect progress reports, occasionally will visit to check on progress but by and large let the Studio head Manage the teams of developers and the overall development of that game to them.

It says a lot when they still have to make it not look like an alpha build because it's not attractive enough to players/investors, but have to make it look good enough of some systems working as they want to show it off. It's just so stupid.

I am sick and tired of outsourced CGI trailers, and all this other stuff, I want to see alphas. Even seeing Bodycount's alpha looks amazing, I still enjoy the final game despite how scaled back it was, but even still the alpha looked good enough even if not as impressive as the other 'we dressed it up' games of the era, but that's expected.

I want to see alphas, betas, demos, enough spoken up about games, not this we try to give the illusion of it being on the right track when they are far from it. It's just stupid I don't buy into illusions.

It's not completely Killzone 2 trailer lying as all animation, but it is still a working enough to be 'close to what we wanted' but still a lot of animation/art assets being enough of what's there.

I mean it's not Halo 2 and isn't finished enough comparable is it? Then the game ended up as good as it was despite how troubled it was?

Depends on your definition of fake. This was way more fake than the halo 2 e3 demo and I consider that fake. It was much more real than the killzone 2 e3 demo though.

If I have to wait another two more decades for a new Perfect Dark game im gonna be seriously pissed

@BAMozzy this the same Matt booty who had openly said he had played builds of the game and it was looking good a year ago?

Sounds like he knew where the game was.

But of course you wouldn’t just wildly make things up to the contrary to defend MS now eh?

The gameplay looked good like Deus Ex, Prey or Dishonored. Shame about the design of Joanna Dark, which suggests other issues.

@BacklogBrad I mean, sure, they cancelled two games. Let's not forget the thousands that lost there jobs and a studio was shuttered.

Theres a lot more to take away than two games getting cancelled.

"Faking" part of the trailer seems par the course for the industry. I mena until recently entirely faked trailers made by marketing teams who weren't the devs was commonplace. That said those usually did err on CGI and making sure you knew heading then they were kinda lying to you. Calling it gameplay and doctoring it a bit.. still doesn't seem that uncommon, but is a bad look regardless. I mean, what, ya'll had "turned a corner" in recent months? The Iniative was founded in 2018 and Perfect Dark (their only game) was announced in 2020. 2024 was WAAAAY too late for the design team to still be discussing how core gameplay mechanics would operate and what gameplay mechanics would even be present. "We were rapidly making real design decision so as to not knowingly lie to players." sounds really REALLY bad. That sounds like Xbox asked for a trailer and they started playing darts for all the decisions they hadn't made in at least 4 years (realistically like 6). And this studio was supposedly described as being Xbox's AAAA venture. Before this and the closure I thought the game was out next year, but it truly sounds like it hadn't left the planning stage yet. Decisions made rapidly are wrought to be reversed down the line and either way they still had to build the ENTIRE GAME. Even if we assume they had the foundation done, that's still a lot of work to need that many years in and it's even worse when it sounds like they were barely leaving the planning stage with, I was gonna say some parts, but no the guy called out pretty much everything in the trailer. I mean, hearing this, man, guys I think think Xbox should've canceled this game sooner. Like, at least then maybe the studio would've had a chance and could've tried making something else (though honestly maybe the studio itself was the problem).

Folk in the comments acting like everyone doesn’t do this 🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️

@BAMozzy We heard a similar story with Redfall. It literally came out after everything that the studio devs WANTED Microsoft's purchase to lead to the game being canceled or rebooted, but their studio head kept promising everything was fantastic. I think the idea of being "hands off" doesn't fully work when studios do genuinely have their own problems. There's tons of stories out there of toxic leadership from studio heads (and they don't have to invoke the H word to be toxic). Xbox does hold the responsibility of properly managing their studios. This doesn't mean micromanaging them into the ground, but it also doesn't mean letting bad leadership and internal strife sabatoge any chance at success. At the end of the day this studio that was formed under Xbox and closed under Xbox, and that's on Xbox. Sarah Bond, Phil Spencer, and Matt Bootty all need a President Truma style sign saying "the buck stops here".

I'm not even disagreeing that the studio and state of the game was at fault here. The employees who lost their jobs have my sympathies, but hearing this it makes sense why both got cut. I am saying that it is up to Xbox to catch this stuff ahead of time. Perfect Dark shouldn't have been allowed to bleed resources (especially talent) for so long. The game should've been out by now or canceled and moved on from. Like I'm thinking about what else was announced in 2020. STALKER is out (and they were in a blasted warzone). Obsidian has done Outer Worlds DLC, released Avowed, released grounded, released pentiment, is releasing Grounded 2 at the end of this month, and is releasing the Outer Worlds 2 later this year. Like yeah, not all of those are AAA, but that still makes it baffling that the iniative having been formed around the same time Obsidian have bought has put out literally nothing and had just "turned corner" in the months leading up to the trailer last month. That's unacceptable. And it's up to the head of Xbox Game Studios to prevent that type of situation. Because this mess was allowed to bleed out so long, the entire studio had be shut down. There isn't any use crying over spilled milk, but I sure hope Xbox learns from it. They can't just leave studios alone and leave it up to the studio whether they are good or not. Talk to more people than just the studio head or creative director. Get a clear picture and force conversations. I hope at the very least Matt Booty learned a lesson in leadership. Managing Xbox's portfolio of studios and supporting them goes beyond providing funds and taping them on the shoulder every now and then (and especially accepting whatever surface answers given). Xbox has been so afraid of being accused of micromanaging after the Xbox One era closures, but they still NEED TO MANAGE their studios. They need to find a middle ground.

I still remember the whole playable watchdogs at e3 graphics compared to what actually came out, never trusted a trailer since

Has Microsoft no leadership to help direct games? E.g. the Shigeru Miyamoto? They make so much money. Hire someone to come in. I was more excited for this game than any other. So many talented studios Microsoft have ruined over the years, so many amazing franchises they bought and did nothing with. F you Microsoft. You have lost another fan.

@Weebleman

"Theres a lot more to take away than two games getting cancelled"

According to the Xbox faithful apparently not and there is nothing to be concerned about...

It's not defending them - Its looking at things with my Head, not my Heart!! I'm not looking at it from the perspective of an Angry Gamer who's just lost Perfect Dark, I'm looking at this no differently to the countless times over the decades, this cycle has repeated itself...

Go back to when EA were the most hated Company in Gaming, Loot Boxes, Gambling, Studio's being bought the EA management being too 'Hands-on' insisting on shoehorning MTX and/or Online play, then closing the Studio when the 'mess' of a game releases, or being cancelled/closed down because one of their other big games didn't work. ABK was such a disorganised and badly run Company - right up until MS took over and their History follows similar patterns, Ubisoft too. Square Enix sold off some Studios/IPs in their restructuring.

2K hit Crystal Dynamics with Job Cuts whilst they were supposedly working on Perfect Dark and a new Tomb Raider.

Point is, I am not defending by pointing out the way these companies operate and the repeated cycles throughout their History of 'restructuring' during difficult times and growth during booms. No point being Angry over things you can't control. I'd rather a Studio manage itself well than have some corporate manager dictate to the creative people, that's why you end up with pointless, generic online modes with thousands of MTX's or some other 'generic' version of some popular game (like Overwatch, CoD, Fortnite etc) as they want a slice of that commercial pie. Chasing trends instead of creating the next big thing to be at the top, to be the 'trend' others chase...

Sometimes, being more hands off it works out - Obsidian for example and I doubt you'd have got South of Midnight, Clockwork Revolution etc and sometimes it doesn't because the Studio Head is NOT able to manage or be honest with their bosses...

I am not a shill but I'm also not being overly emotional about the situation either and seeing the same pattern that EVERY Publisher has been through time and time again...