When news broke that Perfect Dark was being rebooted fans of the N64 classic rejoiced, but it seems the project is being handled with quite a bit of care with the reboot being developed "very carefully".That's according to head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty, who was speaking at PAX West. Asked by the interviewer how to handle a reboot in the modern age, Booty took a moment, before saying "very carefully" and then laughing presumably to break the tension. Perhaps this was over rumours that the project had been undergoing some development difficulties as Crystal Dynamics had to be brought in to help.But according to Booty, this is not the case. "I read online, 'oh this must mean there's a problem or something' â — it's quite the opposite," he said. Booty talked further about The Initiative, the Xbox studio that was put together specially for Perfect Dark, and its partnership with Crystal Dynamics.
Elaborating on how modern game development has evolved since the days when people were all sat together in one office, Booty talked about how collaboration nowadays is more fluid. He also said the relationship between The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics is "very close", while the team at the latter working on the project numbers over a hundred people.
The Xbox Game Studios boss noted the experience Crystal Dynamics has, with the developer known for its work on triple-A projects â — such as the Tomb Raider reboot. Mentioning Age of Empires 4 and Flight Simulator, Booty described how a game's code comes together in modern games development, with collaboration together with studios worldwide. However, this does lead to greater complexity and can cause problems if there is a slip in the schedule in any of these studios.
Perfect Dark originally launched on the N64 in 2000 and was developed by Rare as a spiritual successor to GoldenEye 007. It was one of the most technically advanced games at the time, and was also lauded for its design and gameplay. Describing the reboot, Booty imagined the game as a cross between The Bourne Identity and James Bond with the trope of the super agent.
The Perfect Dark reboot currently has no release window and not that much is known about it so Xbox Series players and fans of the series will need to be patient.