Perfect Dark development "painfully" slow as senior staff leave The Initiative — report By Sean Carey, 15 Mar 2022 FollowtopicsXbox Game StudiosFirst Person ShooterSean Carey The Initiative, which last year announced it was working on a Perfect Dark reboot, is struggling to retain staff, a new report claims. Around half of the game's core development team have reportedly quit the company. According to VGC's fantastic report which analyses a lot of information from LinkedIn, around 34 employees have departed the studio, including game director Dan Neuburger, design director Drew Murray, lead level designer Chris O'Neill, principal world builder Jolyon Myers, and other senior staff members. However, that's not all. Perfect Dark has also lost two senior writers, the game's technical director, tech art director, lead animator, lead gameplay engineer, QA lead, and more. VGC reports that there are now less than 50 members of staff at The Initiative. In interviews with VGC, former senior developers described the exodus of staff as "fast and furious," which has "heavily affected" the project's momentum. The ex-staff members say that senior team members were frustrated with the lack of autonomy, and "didn't feel heard" on key development issues. They described The Initiative's hierarchy as "top-down" (many at The Initiative were reportedly expecting a bottom-up approach to development) with studio head Darrell Gallagher and game director Dan Neuburger (who has now left), controlling key decisions. This has supposedly resulted in development on Perfect Dark progressing "painfully" slowly and a company culture not forming at the studio. One former staff member said: "Making games is hard enough, let alone when you feel like you can't get through to people making the decisions that affect everyone."Some of the departures occurred in September 2021, which coincided with Crystal Dynamics joining the Perfect Dark reboot as co-developer. VGC's sources say that Crystal Dynamics will likely fill the gaps left by staff departing The Initiative, and agreed that Perfect Dark might have undergone a soft reboot because of the turnover in staff.Speaking with VGC, The Initiative's Darrell Gallagher said, "It's no small task to build a studio and reinvent a beloved franchise. In creating The Initiative, we set out to leverage co-development partnerships to achieve our ambitions, and we're really excited about all the progress we're seeing with our relationship with Crystal Dynamics."In this journey, it's not uncommon for there to be staffing changes, especially during a time of global upheaval over the last two years, and there's plenty more work in front of us to deliver a fantastic Perfect Dark experience to our players."More Perfect Dark stories: Studio closures, game cancellations, and layoffs planned at Embracer Group Xbox Game Studios: What's coming next from every first-party team? Xbox exec says Initiative/Crystal Dynamics partnership isn't a problem Xbox & Bethesda Showcase no-shows: late 2023 and beyond Microsoft "on track" to launch 5+ first-party Xbox games by June 2023 RumourIndustry News Written by Sean CareyAvid Xbox and achievement fan, Sean has committed to playing the best RPGs, racing games, and first-person shooters Xbox Game Pass and his precious free time will allow. Prior to joining TrueAchievements, Sean gained a degree in journalism from Solent University.