While Rare’s excellent Goldeneye 007 from 1997 may be the most popular Nintendo 64 FPS, there was actually an arguably better spiritual successor on the system. Titled Perfect Dark, the game follows Joanna Dark, a Carrington Institute agent, as she sneaks and shoots while uncovering conspiracies by rival corporation dataDyne.
In 2005, the now Microsoft-owned Rare released Perfect Dark Zero for the Xbox 360 as a launch title for the system. This sequel also followed protagonist Joanna Dark, now a bounty hunter, as she continued her battle with dataDyne. With no new titles in the series launched since then, apart from a simple remaster of the original title in 2010, many fans believed the Perfect Dark series was no more.
At least, until Microsoft dropped a surprise reveal for a Perfect Dark reboot at The Game Awards 2020 with a short teaser trailer from its newly-formed “AAAA” studio, The Initiative. With “dream team” talent for Perfect Dark like Daniel Neuburger, who directed the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot and its first sequel, The Initiative sounds like it should be a perfect fit for the ambitious, high-budget title.
A new tweet has shown that Microsoft is willing to throw even more resources at Perfect Dark, too. The Initiative has announced that they are partnering with San Francisco-based developer, Crystal Dynamics, who created the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Marvel’s Avengers. Being that Perfect Dark’s director used to work at Crystal Dynamics, this partnership makes a lot of sense for the game, although it is unknown what exactly Crystal Dynamics is assisting with on the new title.
While it may seem odd to some players for a publisher and first-party developer to bring in a third party to assist with a game, it may be more common than some gamers would think. Valkyrie Entertainment is assisting Sony Santa Monica with God of War: Ragnarok, providing environmental and character art for the game. Valkyrie has also worked on the recent Aliens: Fireteam Elite as a support studio.
With so much time passed since the last Perfect Dark title, it will be interesting for fans to see what The Initiative has planned for the new reboot. A leaker compared the Perfect Dark reboot to the action-film series John Wick, which is certainly high praise. Clearly, Xbox Game Studios has plenty of faith in the title if it is willing to put such a vast array of resources into the game. Still, the new Perfect Dark is early in development, so fans will have to wait for a while to see.
Perfect Dark does not yet have a release window.