When The Initiative announced last year it would be partnering with Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics to bring the first-person spy thriller Perfect Dark to a new generation, concerns were raised about the state of the game.
These claims about development problems were stamped out, with reports the game was actually coming along really well. Now, at PAX West this weekend, Head of Xbox Games Studios Matt Booty has reiterated how the situation is "quite the opposite" to those concerns, and the game is actually in a great state.
Booty went on to explain how Microsoft wants to encourage co-development and collaboration between studios, and this would be the process going forward. Here's exactly what he had to say:
https://twitter.com/IdleSloth84/status/1565804160825556993
As mentioned, the way Microsoft makes games is now evolving - with Booty going on to state how various other teams are collaborating with each other to create next-generation titles, referencing games like Age of Empires and Flight Simulator.
"The days are gone, you know 'everybody round up everyone in the cafeteria' are long gone, [games development] has got a lot more complicated.."
The original concerns about Perfect Dark's development were raised when the design director left The Initiative and was followed by a number of other employees. Matt Booty has previously mentioned how Crystal Dynamics has great pedigree and brings plenty of skill to the project:
“I think we’re at a point in the industry where if you’ve got a team like the Crystal Dynamics team that becomes available, which has got great pedigree, good success, just a lot of skill, and through connections—you know, the fact we’ve got Daryl Gallagher at The Initiative, who knows some folks there—and they become available, going back to what are my jobs day-to-day, it would just be, I’d be remiss to [not] say ‘we’ve got to find a way to make this work’."
Are you excited to learn more about Perfect Dark? Tell us below.
Comments 5
Hope so...but then again they are hardly going to admit things are crap
Let’s get the big three AAA out and in top quality before we move ahead by June 2023
Starfield
Redfall
FM
Then I can start believing and have hope for my Xbox future then.
‘How we make games is evolving’…what, are they actually going to put them out?
Of course he wants to incorporate other teams into struggling studios - they’ve been paying contracted developers for years, so this is definitely a step up from that.
And co-developement works in theory, as a short cut. But look what’s happening now with perfect dark…you have McBooty praising crystal dynamics and how important they’ve been to the project…and then, Perfect dark 2 comes along…and you no longer have crystal dynamics. You no longer have that team with a great ‘pedigree, success, and skill’…you’re effectively starting from scratch again building up a new team/calibration to work together.
Sharing engines, assets, techniques etc between studios is one thing. I think this though could prove to be still pretty short sighted of Xbox…A studio like the Initiative needs to be an actual complete studio with experience of working together for each and every project.
@Bleachedsmiles
I think by now we all know what Microsoft are doing just buying in absolute mass, studios and developer talent.
Their next job is to learn how to manage it all and get a top end AAA game out the door.
They need to get the mass general public on board who are totally focused on Switch and PS5 with their big games, especially in the UK and Europe.
They need momentum for the Xbox brand.
All the negative press with Sony lately £70 games and last of us one, console price increases.
They still selling quickly in the UK, and no rush for Xbox series s and x due to all the Sony price increases.
9 local stores this weekend 1 series x sold and remember this is with the competition Sony making it a bit hard for themselves with unpopular pricing decisions.
Top two physical games in the UK chart this week, Sony. That’s also where Xbox get no publicity what so ever in the game charts.
The Initiative is Microsoft's Comcept. I predict very little good coming from this.
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