Half of the developers “escaped”, what happens to Perfect Dark? – Multiplayer.it

total darkness It appears to be in a critical developmental situation, considering that Half of the core team left the studio initiative Over the past 12 months and a report from VGC trying to shed some light on what’s going on in the Xbox Game Studios in-house development team.

About 34 people They left the initiative over the past year in all, bringing the core team’s developers currently to about 50 people. Among the latest releases are also two high-profile developers like Lee Davis, an animator who moved to Deviation Games, and Ian Miller, chief designer who moved to The Coalition, another team from Xbox Game Studios.

To these must also be added the departure of game director Dan Neuberger, and formerly Drew Murray.

As reported by VGC, the alliance did not appear to have shown a willingness to replace the vents immediately, indicating that the relationship with Crystal Dynamics announced a few months ago represents something more than a simple collaboration, with a large part of the development to be carried out before Square Enix team.

Meanwhile, rumored anyway initiative management trusted Of their team’s talent: “It’s not easy to build a studio and reinvent a historical franchise,” said Daryl GallagherTeam Leader to VGC. “In creating the initiative, we have always sought to lay the foundations for collaboration that can help us move projects forward and we are very excited about the progress we see in our partnership with Crystal Dynamics.”

“On this journey, it’s not uncommon to see personnel changes, particularly during a complex period like the last two years, and so we have a lot of work to do waiting for Perfect Dark,” Gallagher explained. “We wish the best for our predecessors. My teammates and I remain confident in the team we have, with new talent on the way, and I can’t wait to share more about the game.”

In fact, the initial project of the team was to keep it small and organized in such a way as to lead to conceptualization and direct work to be carried out in collaboration, to exploit more employees elsewhere. However, it is clear that even with regard to this vision, the leaks from the team were much more than expected.

Indeed, there appears to be a not-so-positive motive behind these comings and goings to abandon the initiative: according to some developers involved, interviewed by VGC, the team appears determined to Too strict hierarchywith clothing guiding every creative aspect, unlike what initially appeared in the team concept itself.

The leaders in question are Gallagher and Neuburger (the last to leave the scene recently), both Crystal Dynamics, which also indicates that the team’s recent choice to carry out much of the development wasn’t just accidental. In this climate that discourages the creative freedom of other developers and with a lot of work being outsourced, several team members decided to leave the team, further slowing the development of Perfect Dark, which is now awaiting further news, given that game health It remains a mystery.

According to the sources interviewed by VGC, entering Crystal Dynamics may have led to some Restart the projectwhich could mean a longer wait to see the full game, noting that Microsoft has been surprisingly lax on development times thus far.