2w ago

Microsoft is closing down Xbox studio The Initiative, with Perfect Dark killed as well — joining Everwild and ZeniMax's new IP, and other unannounced projects

www.windowscentral.com

Gaming @beehaw.org

Hisnitch @beehaw.org

1w ago

Microsoft is closing down Xbox studio The Initiative, with Perfect Dark killed as well

www.windowscentral.com /gaming/xbox/microsoft-is-closing-down-xbox-studio-the-initiative

games @hexbear.net

git [he/him, comrade/them] @hexbear.net

2w ago

Microsoft is closing down Xbox studio The Initiative, with Perfect Dark killed as well — joining Everwild and ZeniMax's new IP, and other unannounced projects

www.windowscentral.com /gaming/xbox/microsoft-is-closing-down-xbox-studio-the-initiative

PC Gaming @lemmy.ca

alessandro @lemmy.ca

2w ago

Microsoft is closing down Xbox studio The Initiative, with Perfect Dark killed as well — joining Everwild and ZeniMax's new IP, and other unannounced projects

www.windowscentral.com /gaming/xbox/microsoft-is-closing-down-xbox-studio-the-initiative

27 comments

Fuckers buying up studios and then shutting them down. I knew this was going to happen.
- While I agree with you in principle, they didn’t buy the Initiative. It was a studio they founded that hasn’t shipped a single game.
  Perfect Dark looked cool though, this is a major bummer.
  
  Thanks for the correction. I was also looking forward to Perfect Dark. Been a big fan since the original on N64, hence the username.
  
  They bought the Perfect Dark IP though. That's probably just going to languish now.
- Good lord I hope Nightdive stays intact long enough to make a Dark Forces 2 Remaster. Jerec needs to show the new kids how an Inquisitor does things.
I can -sort of- understand cancelling games that have been in development hell but it's insane than they cancelled the Perfect Dark remake. It looked very far along when they showed it last year.
- Anytime I see super-smooth transition animations in a demo, or even just gameplay mechanics that seem to work out way too conveniently, it tells me it’s an animated “pre-viz” demo of the game they want to make. That’s kind of the impression I got from Perfect Dark.
  
  Yea, demos are scripted and polished, I think that's expected
- #150 on SteamDB wishlist - friends and I were really looking forward to this remake.
I swear to god, the entire immersive sim genre is cursed.
- Deus Ex IP being shelved before it's final trilogy getting cancelled
  Vampire the masquerade being rushed and a shell of it's original idea
  Vampire 2 being rebooted from immersive sim to linear action game.
  Prey 2017 getting killed
  Redfall being the worst game of the year it released.. resulting in Arkane Austin being killed
  Fortune's Run developer going to prison
  Perfect Dark 2026 cancellation
  Yeah. It's definitely cursed.
  
  System Shock seems to be working on clawing its way back from the dead.
  
  All hope lies in Gloomwood then
Fables got to be far along enough to not get cancelled but my expectations are incredibly low. Nothing against Forza Horizon but giving a studio that has only ever made Forza Horizon games a AAA RPG reboot where the original game was known for it's super endearing and fun writing along with a hodgepodge of promised god game mechanics in a third person RPG is a bad idea. Also using the Forza engine
So they need writers, they need game designers that do third person combat, level/creature/etc designers since racing simcades replicate real world stuff, I imagine them even needing a different voice acting director rather than whatever they do with Forza Horizon.
It's pretty much a startup studio with a huge budget that has to upgrade the Forza engine to make content creation for quest/gameplay designers/non-programmers easy. Also studio heads have to learn how to manage the staff and content pipeline for a huge RPG game. Recipe for terrible growing pains. Should have never pushed almost all their studios towards Kinect and then live service. Maybe then Lionhead wouldn't have atrophied and been shut down
Selling Bethesda to MS was a mistake.
Not surprised at all. What WILL surprise me is if M$ actually releases another XBOX console. Because as far as I’m concerned right now, regardless of what they say, they are not.
- Seems a foregone conclusion at this point that they’re going to brand a PC as an Xbox and allow it to run both Xbox and PC games on it. They may not even bother making the hardware themselves like they’re doing with this partnership on the “Xbox” handheld which is really just a cross branded Asus handheld.
- I really hope they do, or either allow Devs to publish games only on the good console. Having to release for the S if you want to release Xbox at all is a nightmare that needs to stop, it's gonna get harder as time goes on.
Honestly? Its kinda good Perfect Dark was cancelled.
When MS first showed Perfect Dark, there was nothing of substance really to base any expectations on. Except previous games, which were only ever "okay." But the second time they showed it, with their idea of gameplay, it looked bad. It didn't look like what one would expect from Perfect Dark, it looked like some weird hybrid between Battlefield/Call of Duty, Mirror's Edge, and a high tech cyberpunk game.
Perfect Dark was really only ever "that game Rare made because they weren't allowed to make GoldenEye 2." It wasn't really revolutionary or prolific or anything, unlike GoldenEye.
Its better that it stays the way it was than be ruined by whatever it was going to be cobbled into. I am kinda shocked it took MS this long to cancel it.

27 comments