Perfect Dark To Be Released As Late As 2026, Claims Report

Expert Verified By

Xbox Game Still In Pre-Production!

The Perfect Dark franchise is over two decades old, and Microsoft is looking to revive the franchise with a fresh reboot for Xbox Series S|X consoles. Announced in 2020, the game’s development is being led by The Initiative.

The developer is also receiving help from Crystal Dynamics, but a new report points to various concerns about the game. According to IGN, Perfect Dark is unlikely to release before 2025.

The report states that the game is two or three years away from release.

Why it matters: With AAA games becoming more expensive and time-consuming, each new release can be considered a risk for game developers. Microsoft hopes Perfect Dark can become a huge AAA title, but development has been far from smooth.

 

While the game was announced in 2020, not much work was done on Perfect Dark in the following years. IGN states:

“The Project has seen roadblock after roadblock.”

The report highlights that the game has seen various reboots. While The Initiative is currently receiving help from Crystal Dynamics, the game started development with Certain Affinity as co-developer.

However, this did not work out, and the team lost various developers over several years. Developers could not decide the core mechanics of the game and kept considering different ideas.

This ultimately meant that Perfect Dark was never developed properly. This issue became worse when the developers decided to switch to Unreal Engine 5. The switch was made just before Crystal Dynamic became involved.

IGN reports that development on Perfect Dark had essentially started from scratch in 2022 after the team switched to Unreal Engine 5. A Crystal Dynamics developer stated:

“They had done three years of work, but we did not benefit from three years of work.”

Previously, Matt Booty stated that Perfect Dark gameplay would arrive by 2024. However, IGN believes the game is not coming anytime soon.

With the title being a few years away from release, it would be surprising to see gameplay so soon. Still, Microsoft is betting on Crystal Dynamics and The Initiative, hoping to deliver a strong game for its growing first-party lineup.

Was our article helpful? 👨‍💻

Thank you! Please share your positive feedback. 🔋

How could we improve this post? Please Help us. 😔

Gear Up For Latest News

Get exclusive gaming & tech news before it drops. Sign up today!

Join Our Community

Still having issues? Join the Tech4Gamers Forum for expert help and community support!

Latest News

Join Our Community

104,000FansLike
32,122FollowersFollow

Trending

Black Ops 7 Beta Struggles on Steam – Player Count Nearly 5x Lower Than Battlefield 6 Beta

According to SteamDB, Black Ops 7 beta player count only topped at about 100K players, compared to Battlefield 6 beta's over 500K.

Activision Claims 97% Of Black Ops 7 Cheaters Are Banned Within 30 Minutes

97% of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 cheaters were banned within 30 minutes of signing in, while only 1% made it into the game.

Silent Hill 3 Remake Reportedly Coming in 2028 as Bloober Team Works on Resident Evil-Inspired New IP

Bloober Team is rumored to be working on a Silent Hill 3 remake and a new Resident Evil-inspired IP, with releases expected in 2026 and 2028.

Battlefield 6: EA Promises 120 FPS Performance on Consoles and Free DLC Support

Battlefield 6 to support 120FPS, and alongside, EA to give out a free DLC titled 'Covert Operations' during Season 1.

Microsoft Reportedly Scrapped Its Xbox Handheld After AMD’s Shocking Demands

A new report reveals that the first-party Xbox handheld was cancelled because AMD demanded 10 million sales to develop a custom SoC.