Perfect Dark is reportedly 2-3 years away and could be released episodically

Xbox’s Perfect Dark reboot remains “in the earliest stages” of development and is likely still 2-3 years away from release, it’s been claimed.

That’s according to new accounts of the game’s troubled development cycle provided to IGN by 13 people who have worked on it across three different studios.

Recent plans also reportedly appear to be leaning toward some form of episodic release for Perfect Dark, although this could yet change given how far out the game remains.

Led by Darrell Gallagher, who was formerly head of development at Activision and Square Enix, first-party Xbox studio The Initiative has been working on Perfect Dark since its establishment in 2018.

A secret agent thriller set in a near-future world, the game will be the first new instalment in the series since Rare’s Perfect Dark Zero launched alongside the Xbox 360 in 2005.

While the project was announced in 2020, nothing has been shown of it since following years of setbacks that have stalled development.

These reportedly include a fraught co-development partnership with Certain Affinity, which worked on the game between 2019 and 2021, and high attrition at The Initiative.

VGC reported in March 2022 that the Xbox studio had seen a “fast and furious” wave of senior departures over the previous year.

It was announced in September 2021 that Xbox had partnered with Crystal Dynamics to co-develop the game, and IGN claims the project was essentially restarted from scratch in Unreal 5 last year.

Its sources describe Perfect Dark as a narrative-focused FPS mixing combat and espionage with spy gadgets and some experimental movement tech. It’s now reportedly moving in the right direction, even if there’s a long way to go yet.

Further reading

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Crystal Dynamics claims Perfect Dark development is going ‘extremely well’

Embracer Group also provides updates on Tomb Raider and Guardians of the Galaxy

Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty, who said last year that the days of single studios working on large-scale games were “long gone”, told IGN he had a “full review” of Perfect Dark in May.

Following “all the bumps in the road and the hiccups”, he claimed The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics have now “hit their rhythm” on the game.