Xbox says it ‘jumped at the chance’ to work with Crystal Dynamics on Perfect Dark

Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty has said that partnering with Crystal Dynamics on the upcoming Perfect Dark reboot was a no-brainer.

It was announced in September that Xbox had signed the Square Enix studio behind the Tomb Raider series and Marvel’s Avengers to co-develop Perfect Dark, which is the debut title from its new in-house studio The Initiative.

Former Crystal Dynamics studio head Darrell Gallagher now holds the same position at The Initiative, while the person in charge of the Perfect Dark project, game director Daniel Neuburger, was also previously game director on the Tomb Raider series.

Speaking in a video interview with Kinda Funny Games, Booty said Microsoft jumped at the chance to partner with Crystal Dynamics when it became available.

“I think we’re at a point in the industry where if you’ve got a team like the Crystal Dynamics team that becomes available, which has got great pedigree, good success, just a lot of skill, and through connections—you know, the fact we’ve got Daryl Gallagher at The Initiative, who knows some folks there—and they become available, going back to what are my jobs day-to-day, it would just be, I’d be remiss to [not] say ‘we’ve got to find a way to make this work’.

“We’ve got a team that’s got experience building the kind of thing that we’re building, who’s worked with some of the people that’s now available, you know, it was not a standard situation because they’re not usually out billing themselves as sort of a co-development studio like many places are, but we found a way to make it work and I think it was through some of the personal connections that we’ve got.”

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Booty added: “So, I’m excited about it, just in terms of what it adds onto the team that we’ve already got there at The Initiative. And again, it’s too precious of a resource right now in the industry to not jump on that and we can figure out some way to get a contract done or whatever we’ve got to do.“

Perfect Dark was announced during The Game Awards in December 2020, finally confirming what the new first-party studio was creating.

Veterans of the industry’s premier third-person action games are working on the new Perfect Dark at The Initiative, according to VGC analysis.

Given the extensive experience its staff has on series like Tomb Raider, God of War and Uncharted, it’s possible that Perfect Dark will feature third-person elements, though its Xbox game page lists it as a first-person shooter.