Come along, because this was one of the most beloved surprises of The Game Awards on December 10, 2020: Joanna Dark was back. Microsoft revealed a new Perfect Dark, a reboot of the first-person espionage series, and the first project from The Initiative, Xbox’s own studio.
For those who don’t know this story, the original Perfect Dark came out in 2000 for the Nintendo 64, made by Rare. It was considered the spiritual successor to GoldenEye 007, from 1997, by the same studio, and ran on an improved version of that game’s engine. In it, agent Joanna Dark of the Carrington Institute faces an alien conspiracy tied to the rival corporation dataDyne. After Microsoft bought Rare in 2002, the series got the prequel Perfect Dark Zero, released with the Xbox 360 in 2005. A sequel was even planned but was cancelled in 2007, and the franchise sat idle ever since, apart from a remaster for Xbox 360 in 2010.
The Initiative was created in 2018 inside Xbox Game Studios, led by Darrell Gallagher, who had worked on the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot. The studio brought together veterans such as Christian Cantamessa, writer of Red Dead Redemption, and Brian Westergaard, senior producer on the 2018 God of War, plus people from Naughty Dog, Rockstar, Insomniac and Blizzard. Look at what a cute team.
Along with the trailer, Xbox published an interview with the team:
What came next
This chapter, unfortunately, had no happy ending, and my little gamer heart still aches. Design director Drew Murray left in February 2021, and in September that year The Initiative announced a partnership with Crystal Dynamics for development. The game’s director, Daniel Neuburger, left the studio in February 2022. A gameplay trailer finally appeared at the Xbox Games Showcase in June 2024, with Joanna in stealth action and parkour. But in July 2025, Microsoft cancelled Perfect Dark and closed The Initiative, in one of the company’s layoff rounds.
Source: Xbox / The Game Awards.
Lady Combo
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