Xbox Studio’s The Initiative has just announced late last night a partnership with Tomb Raider’s creators Crystal Dynamics. This partnership will have both studios working together to bring The Initiative’s vision for their new Perfect Dark game.
This partnership between The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics signals a more hopeful end product of the new Perfect Dark, and speculatively, could mean less development time on the game. There is however no word on why The Initiative chose to partner up with another studio to help develop the game, however, there is a chance that this might also signal some development issues backstage that caused the studio to call for help.
Perfect Dark update! We are partnering with Crystal Dynamics, the world class team behind character-driven games such as Tomb Raider, to bring this first-person spy thriller to a new generation. pic.twitter.com/EiqjU99wMa
— TheInitiative (@TheInitiative) September 24, 2021
It is also worth noting, the studio head of The Initiative Darrell Gallaher was previously the studio head of Crystal Dynamics, which is one likely reason behind this partnership. Working with a familiar and trustworthy team of developers that had successfully rebooted a character and a game series in the past already.
Crystal Dynamics is an American video game developer that was founded in 1992 by Judy Lang. The studio has worked on various multiple AAA games that are very well known in the gaming industry. The list of games is long and impressive, it includes Marvel’s Avengers, Tomb Raider, Rise of Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
The history of the studio is definitely on the plus side to this partnership and should put the Perfect Dark fans’ minds at ease. Even if Marvel’s Avengers had a pretty rocky launch, Perfect Dark is more aligned with their history with the Tomb Raider series. Perfect Dark isn’t expected to be a live-service game like Marvel’s Avengers, but it is a rebooted series with an avid and long-standing fanbase that is anxiously awaiting the return of their favorite title, much like Tomb Raider.
Perfect Dark is but one of many Xbox exclusives that are a direct result of the Xbox acquisition spree of beloved studios in hopes of building back up their first-party exclusive games to compete with PlayStation. Obsidian Studio is currently working on their new IP Avowed, Playground Games is currently working on a Fable reboot, Ninja Theory is currently working on Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, and Bethesda Games is currently working on the highly-anticipated Starfield.
Perfect Dark has no specified release date as of right now, but it is expected to release on the Xbox Series X/S, PC, and of course, Xbox Game Pass.
