The director for the upcoming Perfect Dark reboot, Dan Neuburger, is no longer working at developer The Initiative. His LinkedIn page indicates that he is no longer with the company as of February 2022. Dan joined the company in July of 2018.
A careers page on The Initiative’s website currently does not have an open listing for a new Game Director. The position may have already been filled. Xbox insider Klobrille, however, has another theory when it comes to the development of Perfect Dark.
They state that the concept behind The Initiative as a studio is to kick start a project, carry it through the conceptual, prototype, and pre-production phases, and carry it over to another studio for full production. This fits the bill when it comes to Perfect Dark; Crystal Dynamics is also developing the game. Ironically, Neuburger and Darrell Gallagher, founder of The Initiative, came from Crystal Dynamics. Dan worked as a Game Director there for just over 12 years.
Given the sizes of both studios, this theory starts to make sense. A point against it, though, is that Crystal Dynamics currently does not list Perfect Dark as one of their projects on their website.
Klobrille, who is privy to Xbox insider knowledge, mentions that ultimately it’s unknown what this means for the development of Perfect Dark. It’s common for Game Directors to move on when their work is done, but we’ve not seen a lick of Perfect Dark since its teaser trailer. They mention that this news indicates we won’t see the game’s release until 2023 at the earliest.
We may see more news later this year during Microsoft’s E3-esque event, whenever that takes place. It could be May, June, July, or even tomorrow.
It won’t be tomorrow, but you never know, given this crazy world we live in of constant major gaming news.
