Xbox's Perfect Dark Co-Developer Announces Several Layoffs

One of the major development teams working on Xbox's Perfect Dark reboot has laid off multiple employees this week, the studio has confirmed on social media.

Crystal Dynamics, the Tomb Raider developer which has also been drafted in to work with Xbox on Perfect Dark, has let go of 17 workers in total. The team goes on to say that "this change does not alter our current project plans".

Here's their full statement:

This morning, Crystal Dynamics made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce by 17 talented team members. We did not make this decision lightly. Ultimately, this step was necessary to better align our current business needs and the studio’s future success. It is not a reflection of the dedication or ability of those affected.

We recognize how painful this outcome is for those impacted and we are supporting them with transition packages and opportunity outreach.

Crystal Dynamics remains committed to pushing the boundaries of making great games. This change does not alter our current project plans.

At the time of posting, Xbox's main Perfect Dark developer The Initiative hasn't announced any such layoffs, and we're assuming that the two teams are still working to bring the reboot together. Perfect Dark for Xbox Series X|S doesn't have a release date at this stage.

We did finally see the game in action last summer though, and the likes of Digital Foundry came away very impressed by Xbox's showing. If you want to take another look at last year's Perfect Dark footage for a quick refresher, we'll throw a link to that down below.

Thoughts on this unfortunate news? Discuss it with us in the comments section below.

[source spr.ly]