Perfect Dark Would Have Required An Additional $100 Million To Save

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Still Needed 1/3 of Typical AAA Title's Budget!

Story Highlight
  • Perfect Dark was cancelled by Xbox, but Take-Two and Crystal Dynamics discussed a potential deal to save the project.
  • An insider reveals the game needed close to $100 million in its current state.
  • This amount is around 30% of the typical AAA production, highlighting the fact that Perfect Dark needed a lot of work.

Xbox recently cancelled Perfect Dark and shut down The Initiative. This announcement came as a major shock since the title was shown as one of Xbox’s biggest first-party releases.

A recent report also confirmed that negotiations with Take-Two were underway to save the project, but nothing substantial came of these discussions. According to a reliable source, the game needed a huge chunk of investment to be saved.

Why it matters: This type of investment was likely determined to be more than justified for a project like Perfect Dark.

Perfect Dark
Perfect Dark Needed A lot of Money To Save | Image via Twitter

According to Chris Dring, Perfect Dark required an investment of $80 to $90 million after Xbox cancelled the game. Considering the unpredictability of game development, this amount would likely have gone up to $100 million had the deal between Take-Two and Crystal Dynamics gone through.

For context, most modern AAA titles require a budget of between $300-500 million before release. An additional $100 million investment for Perfect Dark would, therefore, amount to around 30% of the typical AAA game’s budget.

This may be why the deal fell through since Perfect Dark was not the furthest along in development. In fact, the project was said to be in rough shape prior to the announcement of The Initiative’s closure.

Perfect Dark
Perfect Dark Received Praise After Its Showcase In 2024

Following the layoffs, Crystal Dynamics is still working on the next AAA Tomb Raider release. The studio has yet to share anything substantial regarding the project, but it continues to make steady progress.

What do you make of this information? Let’s discuss in the comments and on the Tech4Gamers Forums.

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