The Initiative Partners With Crystal Dynamics On Perfect Dark

As I said I don’t know how I feel about this ….

Part of me is still holding out hope it is going to be a third-person game, even more-so that that they're bringing in the CD team.

Also, "early in development?" Really? WTF have you been doing for the past three years? Is that why you had to bring in a third party? To actually get something done?

@SplooshDmg the bigger question I have is how much of CD is assisting with this. Were they really only planning to just run support for Avengers for years?

@SplooshDmg well I know about studios assisting etc. But typically that’s your B Team or a support studio like SplashDamage. This quite literally locks up CD for sometime. Which makes me wonder… it’s probably a smaller team that CD has sectioned off for the project; but this makes me think that Square Enix had no projects for them at all. Sure we’ll temp out our big AAA Western Team o.O

@SplooshDmg well from what I understand there is a tremendously good structure in the Avengers for a single player game. However, Square Enix is chasing that live service game money. It’s like I’m sure they intend Outriders to be that.way but the community flipped out. Now Bablyons Fall is looking pretty rough. But I’m digressing

This is interesting because its so high profile but maybe that’s the point. Maybe it gets people talking.

so does that mean its not going to be exclusive now?

@SplooshDmg well square likes money. But clearly if you look at Actraiser it’s literally on everything but Xbox. Now I’m not port begging but the fact Square Enix believes an Android port is worth it but not an Xbox port should tell you all you need to know about the “relationship”.

@trev666 Bluepoint worked on Demon Souls and that’s exclusive… Next Level worked on Luigi’s Mansion. It happens just usually not this high profile. Although I believe one of Sega’s teams worked on Halo Wars.

@uptownsoul actually they never called themselves AAAA. It was a HR Linkedin post.

"we are stil early in development"??? really? wtf? are you doing in the past 2-3 years? This is very disapointing....
When Drew Murray left the studio to go back to Insomniac I said to my self, maybe the reason he left had to do with the managment or he realized this project goes nowhere....hope I'm wrong in the long term...but this does not goes well....

I wonder why is a problem that iniative, a new studio, is being helped by crystal dynamics but is not an issue that santa monica have and external studio helping with god of war ragnarok.

Its so tiring to see people bash xbox just because without minimum research about how common this is in the game industry.

Also, "what were they doing last 3 years". You don't just say "lets make perfect dark" and it's all set. There are lots of ideas being thrown in, and discussion, and sometimes, after months the project is finally defined, then start the concept process, images, arts, scripts (sometimes multiple scripts til it get approved), then, when all concept is set and approved the game development takes off. This happens with every single game, you just don't know about it. A real example from the industr: Horizon Zero Dawn was conceived in 2010, development started 2011, the game was announced in 2015 and the final game released in 2017. There is nothing wrong with perfect dark development, that is just how development process is.

I do worry about Xbox and their studios.
They had terrible first new generation year with really no AAA releases. Though FH5 soon.
Next year looks a bit bleak.
The competition have had some good AAA this years and have 3 for next year shown full gameplay etc, with release dates.
What the sweet fa are Microsoft doing.

Isn't the head of the initiative used to be the head of crystal dynamics? Probably called in on one of his favours

@uptownsoul it’s not really from “Xbox”. MS is a huge company with different divisions. I doubt the person that post even knows what a AAA is. It’s from years ago and could have been a typo. If it was “from them” they would have advertised it.don’t you think? Then again I know what you think. Your only point here is antagonize people. Spare me your hyperbole again.

Do us all a favor and maybe post when you actually care about what Xbox does hmm?

@UltimateOtaku91 that’s most likely what happened. That and CD is in the same city. The Initiative has like 75-90 employees. This potentially gives them access to triple that in one move.

But my concern is that CD doesn’t work with FPSs much Eidos Yes, CD not so much…

I don't see an issue here. And of course it's in early development. Most CGI trailers are more like job advertisements for game developers etc. You know for a fact Wolverine is no where near done. Under a CGI trailer I see a 5 year window until release. Friendliest mean Xbox got no games coming out next year. There will be more to come, more trailers and more gameplay.

Suddenly remembering the "bonkers purchase" rumour and giving square the old side eye. (Not going to happen)

I’ve said it before but you have this exciting new studio, The Initiative, full of top top talent from various devs and they’re making a…. Perfect Dark game. To me it’s a complete waste, I’d rather a new exciting IP.

Not sure what partnering with Crystal Dynamics is about, but I still feel the same way.

Heeeeere we go. Armchair experts with a plethora of game development experience... I love the gaming community, especially how they feel so entitled to have a game that's not even out yet be made exactly how they imagine it should be. Or how they hear the words early development and instantly weaponize it as console war fodder. Typical lot you lot.

And, anyone saying they're wasting money and talent on creating a new perfect dark game either has a hole in their head or are just plain dumb dumbs. Perfect Dark, once upon a time, was known as the Bond killer. The queen of FPS. It pushed boundaries and required an extension thing for the N64 due to pushing the hardware. I think everyone just assumed another perfect dark zero scenario and they would be assuming wrong. This game will be awesome so shaddap

Its not unusual for Developers to 'support' others in creating their games. Ninja Theory for example was often supporting other studio's to finance their 'Hellblade' game - why it was also made by a 'small' team because the rest were working for (with) others. Criterion are working with Dice on BF2042.

The surprising aspect of this to me is that the Initiative are working with a studio (currently) outside of the Xbox Studios - a studio under Square Enix. With all the 'studio's' under the Xbox Umbrella, it is a surprise they are working with an 'outside' multi-platform developer.

Its not too surprising that of all the 3rd party studio's, the Initiative are working with CD with the connections Darrel Gallagher must have.

I couldn't care less whether studio's collaborate, which studio's collaborate and on which games they end up working together to create. I couldn't care less what 'aspects' they work on either - for example, CD could be working on some 'online' modes whilst the Initiative work purely on the Campaign (or vice versa), I still couldn't care less. What I do care about is the end product and if working together means that end product is 'better' as a result, that's much more important to me!

I'm not very hopeful at all... I mean very interested to see how this turns out!

I'm not very optimistic about this whole situation. Had my fair share of real life examples of artificial "super teams" almost always failing, which Initiative almost certainly is.
Also, bringing in a third party studio to help when you own a small empire, doesn't reek confidence. Could it be that people actually doing the grunt work have stayed at CD, while people looking smart in posters and theorizing about the meaning of gaming life (for a few years now) have moved to Initiative?

I do not want any more updates on a game that sounds like it's 5 years away. Why can't Microsoft be more like Nintendo: "it's a new Perfect Dark, it's out in 4 months!!" They've developed a TERRIBLE habit of telling us about games WAAAAAAAY too early.

Generally when Microsoft kick starts a new studio, the output isn't very good. The Coalition , 343 are examples of it. So called "super teams" made specifically for active franchises that massively struggle with their franchise many years later. I have a feeling this round of their attempt at "building a super team" is also not going as hoped and they are brining in an actually effective team on board to speed things up.

@BAMozzy A little correction is "The Initiative" are working with a studio outside of the Xbox Studios. Your post mentions The Coalition (Gears) team.

@Dezzy70 Xbox will have had a pretty decent year games wise come Christmas. They've already had the highly acclaimed flight sim. They'll end the year with two big hitters in Forza and Halo. And they've had critically acclaimed hits on multiplatforms this year - psychonauts, Deathloop. All money in the bank.

Next year we only know of one confirmed big hitter? Starfield. But there's going to be a steady build of releases now (it's what they've invested in)...including Deathloop.
But MS need to still get better management over their studios. It's been a persistent problem since Xbox one released. It's why halo wasn't out last year. They seem way too lax on ensuring these studios are staying on target.

@BrilliantBill LMAO thank you - I have corrected it now.

I don't know why I typed the Coalition there when I clearly meant the Initiative and 'correctly' typed the Initiative every other time.

The Coalition were not a 'newly' created studio - like the Initiative. They started out as Zipline Studios, then became Microsoft Studio's Vancouver before becoming Black Tusk. After MS acquired the rights to Gears of War, they became 'the Coalition'. 343 was created specifically to take on Halo - although they did recruit quite a few from the ashes of 'Pandemic'.

The Initiative of course is a newly created studio too and with some 'big' names (in developer circles) who have worked with some 'big' studio's. When you have some big names from Crystal Dynamics, Naughty Dog, Bioware, Insomniac, Rockstar, Sony Santa Monica etc with an incredible list of games they have been heavily involved in making, its not surprising that there is the 'super-group' tag.

I don't understand some of the comments like oh they need another studio.. it is extremely rare for one studio to make a game. This is extremely common for multiply studios to pitch into game development

@SplooshDmg Square is going to Square.

@Terrin I think a lot of people forget that. The issue here though is CD is such a big company that’s its headline. Not that it’s strange etc.

@armondo36 Bayo 3, Metroid Prime 4, BoTW2, SMTV, Splatoon 3? Not to mention AC and Fire Emblem had delays.

Nintendo does it too it’s just they have enough smaller titles it’s not as noticeable.

I’m not defending MS but Nintendo’s no prince either and I’m really sick of people trying to act like any of theses companies are “perfect”

@themightyant i do agree it is not common for a studio the size of cd to do support work or have it this public to do so.
this could easily be due to how badly avengers did and square not wanting to finance another 100+ million dollar game. Or as Jeff Grubb said on Grubb snax (not about this specific instance) everyone is looking for people to assist in game development and all support studios has multiply projects lined up. So my guess Microsoft opened there wallet to get a bigger studio to help with support

@themightyant hahaha no worries it's hard sometimes to type and get the same tone as you mean.

But yeah it is really hard to know I just took this as hey we are trying to make the best game and need top tier talent.
Also isn't the initative in around Santa Monica so maybe recruiting is not going as well as they thought with how many studios are demanding talent.

*commenting just to get this to 50 comments lol

But idk how to feel here. I saw someone say that since both of these companies have a large number of openings that aren’t being filled, then they could be just completing projects a different way since workers are harder to come by.

Whatever the reason, I’m hoping for a fine tuned experience. Story is always up in the air as sometime you can have high quality production with an unlikable story. But again, hopefully this means a fully polished game sooner than later.

@mousieone @SplooshDmg Is it really that different from Sony's "timed/console/launch exclusive" deals with square though. The FF team(s) and for all we know the DQ team, and whatever team is doing Forspoken is tied up exclusively making games for Sony, though with the catch that it's timed, or not timed, or timed but with the indefinite option for renewals, or whatnot.) How is it that much different for an SE western team to be contracted to make games exclusively for MS other than Sony doing the sketchy "timed, not timed, we won't really tell you which until we decide we're done with it" thing and MS is just directly hiring out the studio. It's really the same thing via two different contracts.

@themightyant And Naughty Dog makes their own games internally, entirely without pulling in things like, say, Japan Studio or XDEV? That kind of thing is why they have such a thin release calendar right now, and relying on paid exclusivity for 3rd party games.

What's really weird here is with most of Square's main studios contracted out to make game for Sony and Microsoft, WTF is Square itself making other than Triangle Strategy (for Nintendo....) Balan Wonderworld 2?

@SplooshDmg @NEStalgia Two things- people don’t get that these big games require massive manpower. And it is slightly different because The Initiative started the project. Had MS contracted Square from the beginning; the optics would be less concerning to some. Like Demon Souls being a joint effort. That said it’s hard to say when this agreement happened as these contracts don’t happen over night so I dunno. This could be why Drew left.

Again my concern is with the studio is what they done in the past.

@mousieone Why is crystal dynamics a concern at all? Their latest outings other than the dismal avengers have been tomb raider which is well received.

@SplooshDmg@NEStalgia well shifting from working in third person to first and from actions to stealth but it’s one of those wait and see.

@SplooshDmg I'm not really sure what square IS happy with. Deus ex is "very important to them" but forever missing. Tomb raider is a failure. FF didn't meet expectations. They're kinda happy with dq. Avengers failed. Outriders didn't make money. Is the only game they have faith in Chocobo racing?

But then we'd have to hear on push square how tomb raider was never a good series

@NEStalgia @SplooshDmg I can’t do acquisition talk or Switch Pro. It’s on my personal ban list.

I don't mind this at all, CD is a great studio and Tomb Raider is amazing..