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[Papacheeks]

I think you've got a story you want to tell, and you're working backwards from there.

I watched that Xbox documentary and it looked like the OG Xbox guys held the system together on stage with duct tape. Halo was at E3 at 10 fps, and was a mess until the day it launched. All the Xbox "management" did at that point was demand that it be ready at system launch, and then cross their fingers. They didn't really have any other first party games, and the rest was all exclusives they paid for. They famously passed on GTA III though.

During 360, they innovated on services really well. Live, arcade, DLC marketing. They're innovating on services now as well with cloud and Gamepass.

Mattrick era was rough, but that was a different era and different people run the division now with different approaches. Everyone condemned their management style during that time.

I watched the doc you have your info backwards. Microsoft literally pitted teams against one another for a chance to be the team to handle a new console. WHo fucking does that?

Microsoft back then was crazy with power. But SHamous Blackly and the team were the Direct X guys. They talked to developers all the time at venues. They built Direct X based on developer feedback for graphics in software. They had a early prototype to show what a lean OS could do. Which is what at the time someone like bill respected. But the issue was Bill and the dumb higher ups wanted this giant Metal/Aloy X to be displayed and working. it was unrealistic.

But even during that insane setup, they pulled it off, not bill, not some enterprise deuchbag like balmer. But a direct X guy who literally got it working, showed it off and talked like a developer/Creator to a crowd of developers. Thats how they got people on board regardless of all the crazy hardships they had up to launch.

It was people like Blackley and J allard that understood Xbox. They knew what it meant because it meant everything as a project to them. It was an idea, similar to how things like apple started. It started literally in a garage type of environment in a conference room where a bunch of guys talked shop, and came up with something they were passionate about from their respective backgrounds.


When those people left, rest of the company took over, marketing took over. And it became over the next 5 years something else. It wasn't about a group of guys who scrapped together to make something look cool. Xbox at this point feels like a cold game division all about investments for the future when they are forgetting about quality play.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

We might be surprised, Crystal Dynamics is 350+ people. They have many times the number of staff than they had, from an established studio.
I still think fall 2024.

No chance in hell given the information that's coming out. They had a CGI trailer in December 2020, no obviously not enough was done for even an in-engine trailer at that point. 9 months pass (with maybe 5 months worth of actual progress) and then Crystal Dynamics are brought in September 2021. That's probably when rebooting started.

We're only 6 months removed from that and a typical AAA game takes 5 years to make. Let's be generous and say they only need 4 years for Perfect Dark, and they're six months in. That's still September 2025 at the absolute earliest, and that's probably being too optimistic because most of 2018-2020 was them likely brainstorming super-broad concepts for the game and getting the studio set up and organized.

This game isn't coming until 2026 IMHO. I hope it turns out fantastic, but I don't have any anticipation for it anytime soon. It's in the same boat as Everwild honestly, until we see some actual, official gameplay.

If you're a fan of anything and it turns out to be rubbish you oughta be upset.

But this Perfect Dark game hasn't even seen any kind of game play for anyone to be this upset about, it may as well be vaporware especially now that it seems to be undergoing a soft reboot of sorts.

That's not good, either. Just in the span of the past five years MS would have had a decent handful of such vaporware: Scalebound, Phantom Dust remake, and seemingly now Everwild and Perfect Dark considering the rebooting states they are in. It's not a good look for Microsoft with this information coming out and nothing to show of the game to offset it. Or even anything to show right now for one of the other XGS games they've announced but haven't shown in a while like Fable, Avowed, Project Mara etc.

Not wait until June. They need something right now. Something big. Anything to wash away the stink of this dour news and just the general unenthusiastic feeling around the brand right now (Halo Infinite decline, CrossFire X fiasco, no big new games for GamePass for a while, nothing from the ABK stuff for another year at earliest, yet another Zenimax game coming to PS for 1 year timed exclusivity before Xbox even though MS own Zenimax now, Everwild situation, now this stuff with The Initiative, Series X still having performance issue for a lot of the bigger 3P games vs. PS5 etc.). Because it's starting to really add up.

 

[sircaw]

But why would you be disappointed for something that's not even been announced lol, that just sounds like being angry for the sake of being angry.

Anyway, remember this ?



I won't be surprised if this new PD game completely disappears as well for a few years at least. Before I was expecting to see something about it this E3, but all the recent news is just making me feel like we won't be seeing it for a few years.

You guys are some strange arse fans lol

 

[Riky]

Looking at the amount of staff the Initiative had and seeing Crystal Dynamics is several times the size I don't agree, maybe MS wanted it 2024 and that's why they hired a big studio.
If we don't see it by E3 2023 then I'd be worried

 

[boomcrab]

Perfect Dark is just one of those games that was great for it's time. Chasing that same level of greatness, in a highly competitive genre, in this day and age, is futile. The original seems to be the only good game in the series. Let's just leave it at that. We need to just let things die lol

 

[vaibhavpisal]

So as a fan, if Microsoft releases say, Starfield, and it's terrible, that would not upset you>?

Because i can tell you now, as a fan of sony games, if Sony released the next God of war and it was rubbish i would be very upset.

Not happening. MS takes good care of its core fanbase.

Eg, with Halo Infinite, just core fanbase will remain, rest will move to other FOMO.

They screw side projects from time to time. Starfield isn't side project.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

Its just frustrating that this has become microsofts m/o over the past decade for everything triple a thats not gears or forza. They announce like 5-6 years too early, a bunch of people leave, then the project comes out unfinished, underwhelming, or it gets outright cancelled. As an xbox fan, its frustrating as fuck to watch them repeat the same mistakes every time.

Same here mate.

 

[Papacheeks]

It would be interesting to know how many of these devs left AFTER Crystal Dynamics were brought on board. I sensed problems coming up when that was announced.

One thing is for certain, this 'hands off' approach doesnt always work. Studios also need guidance at times. Fuck this 'we dont want toxicity' nonsense, kick their arses if it needs to be done.
343 produced a great game in Halo Infinite, but a year late and starved of content. 343 needed a kick up the backside long ago.

I think a lot of the toxic waves they had were under the old guard that ran the entire direction of the division. Now they need entertainment leads to lead teams and workflows to make stellar content. There's a reason other companies are not having the same issues MS is having currently.

Not going deny others have not had their fair share of troubles and growing pains in mismanagement. But the amount of said mismanagement was more attributed to certain studios/projects over the course of many years. Culminating to a closure.

I wonder if this will have a ripple effect.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Not happening. MS takes good care of its core fanbase.

Eg, with Halo Infinite, just core fanbase will remain, rest will move to other FOMO.

They screw side projects from time to time. Starfield isn't side project.

Huh? Dude, the core fanbase for Halo Infinite are the ones with the most complaints! They're the ones with most of the concerns, that seem legitimate, and 343i has shaky communication with them.

Can't blame others for moving on when other games are actually delivering with both quality and content. It's not just FOMO why a lot have been leaving Halo.

 

[Hezekiah]

If you have ever managed before or are a parent, you know how risky this management style is. If you are seen as lenient people will take advantage over time. There should be no gray areas, people operate horribly under gray. It's no wonder that MS is flooded with studios and barely a game in sight right now. You can also see it with 343 and Halo. How the hell is MS not lighting a fire under 343's ass is beyond me.

You've got to strike the right balance, but I agree 343i have taken the piss. Showered with resources, they bring their game a year late, which has a pretty good campaign, and a poor multiplayer. They need to do much better, and MS will surely be looking at the current status of the multiplayer as a reason for changes in the studio.

With Crystal Dynamics it's going to be tricky because they're a third-party so MS doesn't have full control over them the same way, however CD will feel they have a point to prove after the diasterr of The Avengers.

 

[adamsapple]

You guys are some strange arse fans lol

I guess I've never had much affinity for Perfect Dark in the first place lol.

But just being realistic, all this new negative news clearly means we won't be seeing this game for a good long while, so people should just keep expectations very low so as not to bum themselves out more.

 

[oldergamer]

- The Initiative staff reduced by half since Crystal Dynamics' involvement
- Gallagher confident in the team & CD
- two former devs unhappy about slow progress
- Perfect Dark is likely still years away
- Xbox is willed to be patient with their teams

Seems this was going to happen as there are overlapping roles at CD. I recall before CD was brought in, the main problem was growing a team big enough to to handle development. Slow progress isn't great, but at the same its an incubation studio, or idea factory. They were not big enough to develop the game and never were going to grow bigger.

 

[Topher]

Its just frustrating that this has become microsofts m/o over the past decade for everything triple a thats not gears or forza. They announce like 5-6 years too early, a bunch of people leave, then the project comes out unfinished, underwhelming, or it gets outright cancelled. As an xbox fan, its frustrating as fuck to watch them repeat the same mistakes every time.

I'm disappointed because I was really looking forward to seeing what The Initiative could do under Darrell Gallagher. Loved his work on Tomb Raider with Crystal Dynamics. For whatever reason, doesn't seem to be going as smoothly working for Microsoft. And you are right. Microsoft doesn't have the best track record. Now it seems like The Initiative is just a shell studio with Crystal Dynamics doing all the work rather than a collaboration. Maybe that will work out and maybe it won't, but none of this sounds ideal to me.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Huh? Dude, the core fanbase for Halo Infinite are the ones with the most complaints! They're the ones with most of the concerns, that seem legitimate, and 343i has shaky communication with them.

Can't blame others for moving on when other games are actually delivering with both quality and content. It's not just FOMO why a lot have been leaving Halo.

Yeah. In my friend list, all Halo fans are playing it.

They always have, and will be there.

They are are playing so they they have complaints.

It's going Gears 5 route. Lot of complaints at first. Everything will be fixed when in a year with more content than anyone can reasonably play.

But it will be too late for it to be mainstream then.

 

[Stuart360]

Huh? Dude, the core fanbase for Halo Infinite are the ones with the most complaints! They're the ones with most of the concerns, that seem legitimate, and 343i has shaky communication with them.

Can't blame others for moving on when other games are actually delivering with both quality and content. It's not just FOMO why a lot have been leaving Halo.

I think they made a mistake with the battlepass (thankfully something that doesnt concern me), but the actual Halo gameplay, well i put 80 hours into the MP.
The game is awesome, but you can only play the same handfull of maps over and over before you have to move on. The playerbase dwindling is NOT always about the game quality. There should of been double the amount of maps at launch, atleast imo.

 

[adamsapple]

So now that we can safely assume Crystal Dynamics will take up brunt of the games development ...

would you guys be OK if this is a third person game more in the vein of the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy instead of an FPS ?

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Yeah. In my friend list, all Halo fans are playing it.

They always have, and will be there.

They are are playing so they they have complaints.

It's going Gears 5 route. Lot of complaints at first. Everything will be fixed when in a year with more content than anyone can reasonably play.

But it will be too late for it to be mainstream then.

Exactly, and that's the big problem. No one cares about these games if they finally get a decent amount of content, get fixed etc. years down the line. No Man's Sky is supposedly great now, but who really cares? People only remember its release in 2016 being terrible, that's the legacy of the game for them. Doesn't help they never did a new marketing campaign to at least sell it as a fresh new revamp to the mainstream market.

Microsoft at least have the money to market Halo Infinite big again once they get enough new content, modes (co-op, Forge, Battle Royale), and a new campaign story to advertise. It could MAYBE come back from the brink as long as they have new content regularly from there. But it's still a game of "what if". Still waiting.

And more people are just getting tired of that kind of waiting.

I think they made a mistake with the battlepass (thankfully something that doesnt concern me), but the actual Halo gameplay, well i put 80 hours into the MP.
The game is awesome, but you can only play the same handfull of maps over and over before you have to move on. The playerbase dwindling is NOT always about the game quality. There should of been double the amount of maps at launch, atleast imo.

Yeah this is definitely about lack of content and horrible progression system from me, I've never said Halo Infinite's gunplay is bad. To a lot of people it's the best in the series on that front.

But good gameplay and game mechanics don't mean much if there isn't enough content to use with them. And again, their progression system is borked too. Longer-term issues they'll have to constantly prove they are solving during the seasons, going forward.

 

[Stuart360]

So now that we can safely assume Crystal Dynamics will take up brunt of the games development ...

would you guys be OK if this is a third person game more in the vein of the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy instead of an FPS ?

Pretty sure The Initiative will still be calling the shots, directing the game, with CD basically helping to build the game.

 

[SenjutsuSage]

Nothing has changed. Did people really think a team of less than 70 people were ever going to build a AAA, ambitious next gen exclusive when they didn't even have the raw manpower needed to complete the task? This new information isn't telling us anything that wasn't already clear to us. Crystal Dynamics is in. With that taking place, some egos may be bruised in the process and people might feel they're getting supplanted for other people. It is what it is, Microsoft now has a team that collectively can ship a game.

 

[Riky]

Spencer needs to go. He knows very well how to spend money, but actually delivering quality, first-party games?

Publisher of the year.

Crystal Dynamic already fully staffed.

Yep and they are a far bigger studio than The Initiative was and ever will be.

 

[Jigsaah]

No shot Microsoft allows the Initiative's first game to go by the wayside. Get someone new in there and keep churning.

 

[remember_spinal]

Nothing has changed. Did people really think a team of less than 70 people were ever going to build a AAA, ambitious next gen exclusive when they didn't even have the raw manpower needed to complete the task? This new information isn't telling us anything that wasn't already clear to us. Crystal Dynamics is in. With that taking place, some egos may be bruised in the process and people might feel they're getting supplanted for other people. It is what it is, Microsoft now has a team that collectively can ship a game.

I mean, this is a nice spin…the story here is that the original development team that was comprised of the industries A-list pretty much completely jumped ship from the project due to poor management.

Crystal Dynamics was brought in to salvage the project. It’s now a Crystal Dynamics game, fully.

The Initiave as we know it today is a failed studio.

 

[Stuart360]

I mean, this is a nice spin…the story here is that the original development team that was comprised of the industries A-list pretty much completely jumped ship from the project due to poor management.

Crystal Dynamics was brought in to salvage the project. It’s now a Crystal Dynamics game, fully.

The Initiave as we know it today is a failed studio.

And you accuse someone else of 'spin' lol.

Its not worth discussing this with someone like you.

 

[ParaSeoul]

I mean, this is a nice spin…the story here is that the original development team that was comprised of the industries A-list pretty much completely jumped ship from the project due to poor management.

Crystal Dynamics was brought in to salvage the project. It’s now a Crystal Dynamics game, fully.

The Initiave as we know it today is a failed studio.

Should have shown a little more initiative

 

[Bryank75]

Should have shown a little more initiative

 

[Dane]

Come on? No its what I and everyone with a brain has been saying about how Microsoft manages software currently. They care, but I think they saw things not progressing well internally with specific studios they themselves manage, hence the buying at a good price of Activision.

Because all of those studios under A/B are established with teams/Work flows and can pump games out. They dont have to manage them they are already self sustaining, same with Bethesda. I think now the veil has been pulled of the big promise, and outside of established studios/Publishers they now have under their umbrella, Microsoft doesn't need to put as much emphasis on Coalition/343/ ect. They have COD, Diablo, Overwatch, Crash, and a back catelog of IP's that they can just say: "yea go for it, here's a bunch of money".

This article just finally said what all of us have been saying. Microsoft is trying to buy their way to their success, and not nurture studios and learn as a company/Division in their failings in approach to managing studios/projects. Why look inward when you can buy the already established?

So why it was okay when Sony did it? Almost all their studios were not their creations, they had multiple games under their belt and found sucess when they made Playstation exclusives, but many took years to be finally bought, wouldn't that mean the "Organic growth' was more about having studios already with a portfolio before the contact and this progressed very well that led into the acquisition? Because the best studios MS have are all acquisitions except Turn 10 being the created one, even The Coalition was an independent studio.

 

[Punished Miku]

So now that we can safely assume Crystal Dynamics will take up brunt of the games development ...

would you guys be OK if this is a third person game more in the vein of the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy instead of an FPS ?

Fuck yeah.

 

[mejin]

This thread is great to see which xbox fans are real people and which of them are just astroturfing.

So now that we can safely assume Crystal Dynamics will take up brunt of the games development ...

would you guys be OK if this is a third person game more in the vein of the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy instead of an FPS ?

If the game is great I think no one would care if it's first or third person.

 

[TheGodfather07]

This sounds fucked, not gonna lie. The initiative does not sound like it is in a good place at all.
sony Santa Monica had issues, scrapped their entire game and we got god of war but can we really trust this dev team to do something similar.
it sounds like a shit show.

With santa Monica, half the team didn't leave though. Just the game director. Apparently he was leading a new ip that just didn't work out. They got Cory Barlog back to lead the new god of war. Which worked out perfectly for them. Cory was actually working at crystal dynamics before going back to santa Monica.

 

[Umbasaborne]

So now that we can safely assume Crystal Dynamics will take up brunt of the games development ...

would you guys be OK if this is a third person game more in the vein of the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy instead of an FPS ?

I would, i love the new tomb raider games

 

[Riky]

"
It's no small task to build a studio and reinvent a beloved franchise," The Initiative boss Darrell Gallagher said in a statement to VGC. "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."

Bring it on.

 

[Papacheeks]

So why it was okay when Sony did it? Almost all their studios were not their creations, they had multiple games under their belt and found sucess when they made Playstation exclusives, but many took years to be finally bought, wouldn't that mean the "Organic growth' was more about having studios already with a portfolio before the contact and this progressed very well that led into the acquisition? Because the best studios MS have are all acquisitions except Turn 10 being the created one, even The Coalition was an independent studio.

Sony cultivated a lot of teams as in gave them startup money for said projects and a lot of the time gave them developer kits without any strings attached during the early days of Playstation. They funded countless titles from people like Naughty Dog and the likes and gave them literal open access to everything they had.

Sony had entertainment access for directors/writers, animators at their disposal. Along with top of the line studio access for audio, film production to be used for games. Microsoft didn't have that. So a lot of ways SOny worked in helping beef up studios and then when they get them to a point, they make a deal to see if they want to be part of the fold?

Microsoft just spends money. Epic they had a good relationship with early on with Unreal, Gears, Parriah and the likes. And in early days helped alot, but then shit changed. And they became more contract oriented than growing organic teams.

I don't want to drag this out, there's a lot you can look up about how Microsoft has handled relationships/partnerships over the generations.

 

[Vaelka]

I just have a hard time getting excited for it when they're just turning it into another bland '' modern day '' looking game.
The old games had a more sci-fi style, Joanna now could just be any other female protagonist in any game ever.
Omg a skinny woman in a tank top and jeans how very original /s.


So boring, holy hell all these fancy graphics but can't come up with anything original or more engaging.

 

[SenjutsuSage]

I mean, this is a nice spin…the story here is that the original development team that was comprised of the industries A-list pretty much completely jumped ship from the project due to poor management.

Crystal Dynamics was brought in to salvage the project. It’s now a Crystal Dynamics game, fully.

The Initiave as we know it today is a failed studio.

Yikes the desperation in this post is something you can literally cut with a knife through the air.

Now THAT right there is some spin. What AAA development studio is building a game of this level of ambition, a next gen only AAA exclusive at that, with less than 70 people for much of your entire existence? The entire time we have followed the initiative they were a still growing studio without a development staff nearly large enough to ship a product of the ambition they said they were created to make. When you refer to this A-list what are you talking about? A bunch of game developers who worked on popular game studios by successful game studios? Care to take a good, hard look at who is still there and who has since joined?

You will see the following studio names

The Coalition
Crystal Dynamics
Turn 10
Respawn
Infinity Ward
Avalanche
Naughty Dog
God of War
Insomniac
BioWare/Dice
Treyarch
Sledgehammer
Playground
Rockstar North
2K
Riot
Motive

Shit.. definitely a lineup of D team talent right there. Hell, of some of the development talent that left belonging to specific major studios, Microsoft just so happens to own/will acquire the very studios those very people work/worked for, such as Sledgehammer, Infinity Ward, 343 and even id software, among others.

And then they added all of Crystal Dynamics up to 500 employees to this team. You sure you don't want to rethink that nonsense you're saying? How do you salvage a game that never had a team big enough to build it until Crystal Dynamics was added on? All they could have been doing was early pre-production, planning and design related work. They were by no means doing anything approaching full scale production with a team that small.

The Initiative from the start was always pitched as a highly skilled game production, planning and design team that would then go get a team together to help them build their game. Not too dissimilar from what Sakaguchi had with Mistwalker.

Don't believe me?

Here you go.

Xbox Game Studios 'The Initiative' talks 'staying small, staying agile'

Microsoft is setting expectations for its The Initiative studio, "staying small and staying agile" for its early days.

www.windowscentral.com

This was their plan since 2019.... Because some people that were there at the start are gone means something has drastically changed? They literally said "being small and agile" would be our strength.

How Darrell Gallagher plans to build Microsoft’s The Initiative studio in Santa Monica

Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the gaming industry’s top leaders? Learn more about GamesBeat Summit sponsorship opportunities here. Microsoft made news this week as it announced it was buying four game development studios and opening a fifth. That’s part of the company’s...

venturebeat.com

Don't believe that? How about this 2018 interview where they literally say with them it isn't about their numbers. How many people they will need will depend on what kind of game they're making.

GamesBeat: Do you have any idea yet how many people you’ll have?

Gallagher: It depends on what we’re building. I don’t view it as a numbers game. I view it as, what do I think is going to be a great entertainment and gaming experience to build around? Then you back into the numbers a bit after. What would it take to achieve this? There’s no hard numbers at this point, as a result. It’s about creative minds together to explore the thing we want to go build. Where do we land this and how do we support it?

What I do know is that we’ve been given the support and encouragement to explore and find those opportunities. I know that, again, from my standpoint, it’s awesome to have the whole of Xbox and Microsoft supporting what we’re doing.

So yea... this was always the plan buddy. That people will come and go based on their own reasons is totally up to them when perhaps the creative process isn't going the way they like. You must be forgetting many of these same people left those various A-List studios they were apart of in the first place. Sometimes people leave. The Initiative is far less of a failed studio than you are a failed console warring troll.

 

[SenjutsuSage]

Publisher of the year.


Yep and they are a far bigger studio than The Initiative was and ever will be.

And this was ALWAYS their intent as a team.

Xbox Game Studios 'The Initiative' talks 'staying small, staying agile'

Microsoft is setting expectations for its The Initiative studio, "staying small and staying agile" for its early days.

www.windowscentral.com

However, The Initiative also looks to set expectations going forward, claiming "staying small, and staying agile, will actually be our strength." Followed by words from Gallagher, the studio lead states "the bar is high" and "the challenge for us is making sure we deliver on those expectations." It indicates The Initiative is starting small for its early projects, leveraging a tight team focused on innovation – not scale.

The idea of their project being small was speculation by Windows Central, which proved wrong. The core team at The Initiative was intended to remain a small core group that would then find a partner. People assumed them remaining small meant they wouldn't be making AAA games or something, but that was clearly not the case, and it clearly was never the reason they were created for in the first place.

How Darrell Gallagher plans to build Microsoft’s The Initiative studio in Santa Monica

Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the gaming industry’s top leaders? Learn more about GamesBeat Summit sponsorship opportunities here. Microsoft made news this week as it announced it was buying four game development studios and opening a fifth. That’s part of the company’s...

venturebeat.com

GamesBeat: Do you have any idea yet how many people you’ll have?

Gallagher: It depends on what we’re building. I don’t view it as a numbers game. I view it as, what do I think is going to be a great entertainment and gaming experience to build around? Then you back into the numbers a bit after. What would it take to achieve this? There’s no hard numbers at this point, as a result. It’s about creative minds together to explore the thing we want to go build. Where do we land this and how do we support it?

What I do know is that we’ve been given the support and encouragement to explore and find those opportunities. I know that, again, from my standpoint, it’s awesome to have the whole of Xbox and Microsoft supporting what we’re doing.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

And this was ALWAYS their intent as a team.

Xbox Game Studios 'The Initiative' talks 'staying small, staying agile'

Microsoft is setting expectations for its The Initiative studio, "staying small and staying agile" for its early days.

www.windowscentral.com

The idea of their project being small was speculation by Windows Central, which proved wrong. The core team at The Initiative was intended to remain a small core group that would then find a partner. People assumed them remaining small meant they wouldn't be making AAA games or something, but that was clearly not the case, and it clearly was never the reason they were created for in the first place.

How Darrell Gallagher plans to build Microsoft’s The Initiative studio in Santa Monica

Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the gaming industry’s top leaders? Learn more about GamesBeat Summit sponsorship opportunities here. Microsoft made news this week as it announced it was buying four game development studios and opening a fifth. That’s part of the company’s...

venturebeat.com

I don't see anywhere in your giant mess where it says their intention was to lose half their team before they even showed gameplay.. Did I miss it?

 

[Riky]

And this was ALWAYS their intent as a team.

Xbox Game Studios 'The Initiative' talks 'staying small, staying agile'

Microsoft is setting expectations for its The Initiative studio, "staying small and staying agile" for its early days.

www.windowscentral.com

The idea of their project being small was speculation by Windows Central, which proved wrong. The core team at The Initiative was intended to remain a small core group that would then find a partner. People assumed them remaining small meant they wouldn't be making AAA games or something, but that was clearly not the case, and it clearly was never the reason they were created for in the first place.

How Darrell Gallagher plans to build Microsoft’s The Initiative studio in Santa Monica

Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the gaming industry’s top leaders? Learn more about GamesBeat Summit sponsorship opportunities here. Microsoft made news this week as it announced it was buying four game development studios and opening a fifth. That’s part of the company’s...

venturebeat.com

Yeah it's just the usual concern trolls, can't wait to see some gameplay.

 

[Hendrick's]

The project sounds like a mess, but maybe CD can make a good game. Something obviously went wrong when they had to bring in CD. Imagine working at a company for 4 years, and accomplishing so little. MS should just shutter the studio . They don't need them to make PD.

 

[Belthazar]

No chance in hell given the information that's coming out. They had a CGI trailer in December 2020, no obviously not enough was done for even an in-engine trailer at that point. 9 months pass (with maybe 5 months worth of actual progress) and then Crystal Dynamics are brought in September 2021. That's probably when rebooting started.

We're only 6 months removed from that and a typical AAA game takes 5 years to make. Let's be generous and say they only need 4 years for Perfect Dark, and they're six months in. That's still September 2025 at the absolute earliest, and that's probably being too optimistic because most of 2018-2020 was them likely brainstorming super-broad concepts for the game and getting the studio set up and organized.

This game isn't coming until 2026 IMHO. I hope it turns out fantastic, but I don't have any anticipation for it anytime soon. It's in the same boat as Everwild honestly, until we see some actual, official gameplay.



That's not good, either. Just in the span of the past five years MS would have had a decent handful of such vaporware: Scalebound, Phantom Dust remake, and seemingly now Everwild and Perfect Dark considering the rebooting states they are in. It's not a good look for Microsoft with this information coming out and nothing to show of the game to offset it. Or even anything to show right now for one of the other XGS games they've announced but haven't shown in a while like Fable, Avowed, Project Mara etc.

Not wait until June. They need something right now. Something big. Anything to wash away the stink of this dour news and just the general unenthusiastic feeling around the brand right now (Halo Infinite decline, CrossFire X fiasco, no big new games for GamePass for a while, nothing from the ABK stuff for another year at earliest, yet another Zenimax game coming to PS for 1 year timed exclusivity before Xbox even though MS own Zenimax now, Everwild situation, now this stuff with The Initiative, Series X still having performance issue for a lot of the bigger 3P games vs. PS5 etc.). Because it's starting to really add up.

Yeah, owning a Series console hasn't been exciting since launch and it's been a year and a half already

 

[Hobbygaming]

I think Coalition Games, Playground games and yes, even 343i have proved that MS can churn out great games. I am not a big fan of Halo Infinite, but there is no doubt there is a quality game there. the GOTY awards speak for themselves.

That said, you have to wonder why the studio did not hire devs and become a full fledged studio after 4 years. Why is the game not even ready to show off after 4 years? Why is the director leaving the game without shipping it?

These are structural problems that Phil and others in the exec leaderships need to sort out. This studio is in LA where all the other major studios are. They shouldnt have had any issues staffing up. It's obvious MS has billions to spend on aquisitions. It's time to spend millions retaining talent and developing studios.

There has been many departures from The Initiative studio, I can post them here if mods are ok with it

 

[SenjutsuSage]

I don't see anywhere in your giant mess where it says their intention was to lose half their team before they even showed gameplay.. Did I miss it?

Ladies and gentleman, we have a once in a generation genius here. He's trying to say that Perfect Dark, a AAA next gen only, story driven exclusive was going to be built by a team of less than 70 people.

Let's clap for this man.

Sorry to disappoint you, but half of the Perfect Dark development team responsible for building that gameplay is more in the range of 200-250 people... not a mere 35. You are awarded no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

 

[Riky]

Ladies and gentleman, we have a once in a generation genius here. He's trying to say that Perfect Dark, a AAA next gen only, story driven exclusive was going to be built by a team of less than 70 people.

Let's clap for this man.

Sorry to disappoint you, but half of the Perfect Dark development team responsible for building that gameplay is more in the range of 200-250 people... not a mere 35. You are awarded no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

They're not the brightest, same people who were shook when Halo Infinite came out great.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

Ladies and gentleman, we have a once in a generation genius here. He's trying to say that Perfect Dark, a AAA next gen only, story driven exclusive was going to be built by a team of less than 70 people.

Let's clap for this man.

Sorry to disappoint you, but half of the Perfect Dark development team responsible for building that gameplay is more in the range of 200-250 people... not a mere 35. You are awarded no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

AAAA don't forget. Your spin is incredible. I admire all the work you put into spinning obvious developer turmoil and mismanagement into "It was all part of their Master Plan!" Muah ha ha aha hah.

 

[Punished Miku]

AAAA don't forget. Your spin is incredible. I admire all the work you put into spinning obvious developer turmoil and mismanagement into "It was all part of their Master Plan!" Muah ha ha aha hah.

He is trying to put the best spin on it, but he also has a point. It seems that half the founding members have left. But it's true that this would never have been enough for the full project, and they would have had to scale up either way.

 

[CatLady]

Time for new acquisitions I guess

Agreed, Crystal Dynamics would be a good choice. They should grab Eidos Montreal and Asobo while they're at it.

 

[Decontamination Silo]

How did a billion dollar company not come to the realization that Perfect Dark was popular because it was GoldenEye 2? No one gives a single shit about the Perfect Dark IP.

 

[Ristifer]

How did a billion dollar company not come to the realization that Perfect Dark was popular because it was GoldenEye 2? No one gives a single shit about the Perfect Dark IP.

 

[adamsapple]

Agreed, Crystal Dynamics would be a good choice. They should grab Eidos Montreal and Asobo while they're at it.

Square Enix are always talking shit about their Western studio output, so may as well just sell them off to MS. Better for all parties involved.

 

[JTCx]

AAAA don't forget. Your spin is incredible. I admire all the work you put into spinning obvious developer turmoil and mismanagement into "It was all part of their Master Plan!" Muah ha ha aha hah.

He's the same flunky who tried to spin the whole 'always online' and no game sharing fiasco during pre-XBone as something positive.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

He's the same flunky who tried to spin the whole 'always online' and no game sharing fiasco during pre-XBone as something positive.

Really? Wow. That explains so much.