Perfect Dark - Microsoft Studios, The Initiative

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https://www.purexbox.com/news/2025/0...ct-dark-reboot

Last week, we reported how one of the teams behind Xbox's now-cancelled Perfect Dark reboot, Crystal Dynamics, had suffered job losses as a result of "evolving business conditions", and now a new report from Bloomberg has shed a bit more light on what's been happening - both at the studio and with the game itself in recent months.

The outlet says that the studio "was forced to cut staff and fully abandon the game" last week, despite its developers spending the past couple of months trying to find a new funding partner to keep the title alive.

Notably, Take-Two is reported to have been interested in buying it, but couldn't come to terms on a deal:

"...publisher Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. would purchase the game from Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox, which owned the rights. Take-Two would then fund and publish the game."

The game needed another $80/90m spending on it.

The reason this didn't go through is apparently because of disagreements surrounding the "long-term ownership" of the Perfect Dark franchise, according to sources who have been speaking to Bloomberg anonymously.

Don't forget that Xbox has done a deal along these lines before though - we notably saw it with Hi-Fi RUSH when Tango Gameworks was closed down and then revived by Krafton - so it's not beyond the realms of possibility.