Perfect Dark Design Director leaves the initiative

Perfect Dark Design Director leaves the initiative

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The Design Director at Perfect Dark The Initiative announced that he is leaving the project. Drew Murray of the Initiative revealed the news on Twitter (as identified by the VGC). Murray previously worked at Resistance, Ratchet & Clank and Sunset Overdrive at Insomniac Games before leaving in 2018 to help kick-start the original Microsoft studio. He is leaving to focus on his “life outside of work” and tweeted that the farewell was bittersweet after working with “such a talented and experienced team”.

“The team has the vision and talent to take the game and the franchise out of the park,” Murray tweeted about the future of the project, noting that the reveal trailer still gives him the chills. Interestingly, Murray points out that when he joined the Initiative, he did not know that the team would be working on a Perfect Dark game.

Murray says the bright side of this is that he will experience Perfect Dark as a fan on launch day. The Perfect Dark reboot project was announced in December 2020 during the Game Awards and is promising to deliver an eco sci-fi first person shooter. You can learn more about the game in our coverage of your reveal.

The Santa Monica-based studio The Initiative was unveiled by Microsoft in 2018 and is famous for its search for ‘AAAA’ standards in job listings. The development team is currently being led by Darrell Gallagher, a veteran of Rockstar Games, Crystal Dynamics and Activision, where he worked on games like GTA IV and Tomb Raider.

God of War lead producer Brian Westergaard and Red Dead Redemption lead writer Christian Cantamessa are also working on The Initiative, probably contributing to Perfect Dark. It is part of Microsoft’s growing list of studios following its recent acquisition of Zenimax Media.

Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

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