Perfect Dark is actually back, currently in development by The Initiative

This was one of the Game Awards announcements that really threw me sideways. Sure, there have been rumours of a new Perfect Dark for a while now but I just didn’t expect to see any kind of official confirmation so soon. It always felt like a game that was further off than we wanted it to be. Maybe it still is, I’m just glad to know that it exists. All we know now is that series protagonist Joanna Dark is back and she’s fighting the good eco-warrior fight like any superspy should be doing in 2020.

The trailer itself was very much a teasing affair as the cinematic showed off some of the destruction Agent Dark has wrought while searching for answers in a corporate skyscraper. The term “eco sci-fi” has been thrown around to describe the game’s theme so expect all kinds of burned-up and inhospitable countrysides. According to the game’s director Dan Neuburger, The Initiative is reinventing the franchise continuing on to say that, “there really isn’t a game out there that’s hitting that sort of blockbuster secret agent vision”. Shhh, no-one tell them about IO Interactive’s James Bond game.

The Initiative is a pretty well-stocked development studio as Microsoft went around and plucked from the best of the best. Within its folds, you’ll find folks that worked at Bungie, Crystal Dynamics, and Naughty Dog. As for the new Perfect Dark, we have no idea when to expect the game but considering it’s a Microsoft published title, one has to assume that it’ll be exclusive to Xbox. Here’s hoping that this new project lives up to how great Perfect Dark Zero was on the Xbox 360. What a game.

Last Updated: December 11, 2020