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The Initiative is partnering up with Crystal Dynamics for the development of Perfect Dark
- Thread starter gabegabe
- Start date
I imagine when people say "blah is still early" in public what they actually mean is "don't expect to see this soon" not that it necessarily is only 1/4 of the way through.
I hope not. I really liked Perfect Dark on n64 but the gameplay does not really hold up having played it recently on xbox. What's still fun are the gadgets, alternate mode for the weapons etc. Those can be brought back with a different gameplay loop. The core gameplayo of the original is very basic.
We'll chalk it up to a difference in perspective. I see a team filled with experienced industry veterans (majority of which are designers) leveraging outside manpower to finish a game (as planned from day 1). You see a studio in need of help.
So does this mean Crystal Dynamics is also developing a new Tomb Raider game?
Didn't Sony do this with From for Bloodborne? Didn't Nintendo do this with Monolith helping with BoTW? Why does this instance standout so much?
IIRC, Star Fox had a partner right?
I know how LinkedIn works. If you are going to say that The Initiative is way bigger than 70 people feel free to bring a source.
Majority of the employees will have a LinkedIn that's updated.
Sometimes games are announced early to hire developers faster.
Could be and maybe SE really wants to sell CD. Another possibility imo is that they just had free ressources, because nothing is in full production and wanted to have all their developers occupied.
Likely yes. They've opened 2 satellite studios (Washington state and Texas) and probably have 300-400 total staff, so they're likely finishing up support for Avengers with some of the studio, working on PD with another chunk, and then doing preliminary work on Tomb Raider with the remainder.
The difference is, they're not leveraging outside manpower to finish the game--they're partnering with a third party game studio that'll also be credited as a developer of the game. You can't possibly think that was the plan from Day 1. Crystal Dynamics is not a support studio. Support studios don't get credited as developers outside of being mentioned in the credits.
Putting together an efficient team takes more than throwing together a bunch of veterans.
You spend enough time in the XGS thread to know that heavy outsourcing was always the plan for The Initiative.
I know that. But this is not outsourcing--this is co-developing. That's different.
Big difference in my opinion.
MS started the Initiative with quite a lot of fanfare as a new first party studio - built from the ground up with really strong talent and budget. Now that studio is partnering with Square Enix to develop their first game. So who is exactly doing what here?
With Sony and Bloodborne, the game was developed by From with some project management and technical support from Japan Studio. It was very clear that all the creative development - the actual game - was developed by From.
Given how the Initiative was pitched as a new first party flagship studio, this announcement is a little surprising and slightly odd to me..
It's not that uncommon. Bandai Namco co-develops Smash Bros games and Creative Assembly (SEGA-owned) worked on Halo Wars 2. A 3rd party developer is also assisting on God of War: Ragnarok.
Take a look at Super Mario RPG; published by Square and Nintendo. I guess I'm not as surprised as some because this has been a thing for a long time. I would think an established studio wouldn't need as much help but that's just me.
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didn't intelligent systems outsouce most of fire emblem three houses to koei tecmo's romance of the three kingdoms team?
metroid samsus returns had a core team from nintendo as well working on it in addition to mercurysteam.
I don't know what you having a software background or having a friend working at Microsoft or holding Microsoft stock or attending investor calls have anything to do with this. But in any case, I do happen to be an engineer at Microsoft (nothing to do with Xbox) but I can definitely say that there is no way anyone in the engineering offices at Microsoft (even the ones in the Xbox platform team) has any knowledge of what The Initiative's exact situation is unless they are directly working on the game with them. Or they know Phil and like to have a drink with him from time to time. Also, Linkedin being a subsidiary of Microsoft should tell you that Microsoft encourages their employees to make Linkedin accounts and that much is true so Microsoft's numbers are bound to be closer than most.
Also, these are the employee counts for the following dev studios on Linkedin:
- 343 Industries - 570 Employees
- Guerilla - 414 employees
- Playground Games - 320 employees
- Santa Monica Studio - 400 Employees
- Rockstar Games - 4245 employees
- Rare Ltd - 267 employees
- Ninja Theory - 132 employees
Therefore, I conclude that The Initiative is not bigger than 85 employees with 99% confidence.
Most rumors are an immersive sim closer to Deus Ex ? Where is this John Wick rumor? Just curious, would be interested in reading it.
Uhmm.... because they did such a great job with rebooting Lara Croft??? *cough*not really**
So.. what daddy issues will be plaguing... *checks google* ...Joanna Dark from game#1 all the way to game#3? And how will she be "becoming Perfect Dark" even at game# 3?
So.. what daddy issues will be plaguing... *checks google* ...Joanna Dark from game#1 all the way to game#3? And how will she be "becoming Perfect Dark" even at game# 3?
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I think I read it in a thread here but a quick Google brought this up. https://gamerant.com/perfect-dark-reboot-john-wick-comparison/
Most studios outsource nowadays. Ironically enough especially the "premier studios".
I knew ND use outsourcing and that more studios worked on the game. But over 2000? Insane. Thanks for the info.
Which studio with the exception of 343 seems to struggle?
That's normal though. In preproduction The Last of Us Part 2 didn't have those 2100 devs. Those came on board via outsourcing studios somewhere in full production.
Xbox studios share tech similar to other publishers studios. For example the water tech in FH came from Rare. And currently TC is helping with Halo.
I work in marketing and sales. I'm on LinkedIn everyday for my job lol.
My current company is like 10 people off our current LinkedIn headcount.
Honestly I dont care about the amount of people at The Initiative, I'm just tired of the AAAA hot takes being used for console wearing.
That would sound better to me if they were just touching the gameplay aspects.
Because my first impression was "we brought in CD because they make games with a female protagonist", lol.
IIRC Square enix sought help from the devs of Just Cause for their streaming engine, so it's no big deal seeking help from another studio. (as long as it doesn't make the game worse)
CD huh. If they're brought on solely for the production pipeline it would make a lot of sense. They know production values. Hope they're not brought in to support conceptually or creatively though.
You're wrong as stated multiple times and being a famous trivia, the original idea for Bloodborne came from Japan studios and they did have creative output.
It's all good lol.
In my experience some industries will have way higher numbers signed up for LinkedIn than others.
I hate LinkedIn so if I could I definitely wouldnt use it haha.
Joanna Dark already has daddy issues fromn before Crystal Dynamics coming on board. And the backstory of her becoming Perfect Dark has also already been told.
For someone who apparently *checked google* you really didn't learn anything. Must have been in too much of a hurry to drop your hot take...
User Warned: Concern Trolling
What world are we living in? This is throwing in the towel and yet we still. Come on folks. This is the nice way to kill something. It's embarrassing to pretend otherwise.
I'm a huge Perfect Dark fan. The trajectory of this worries me though. Hopefully it comes out well, but we have a studio formed almost 4 years ago now, a creative lead who has left the project, and we have a CGI trailer with no gameplay, and now they need to lean on another studio before we've even seen a frame of gameplay.
I hope all of this is just a coincidence or something they have to get through but it does worry me. The Joanna character is really important to me. I loved the N64 classic... I was lukewarm on PD Zero. I want a good new entry!
I hope all of this is just a coincidence or something they have to get through but it does worry me. The Joanna character is really important to me. I loved the N64 classic... I was lukewarm on PD Zero. I want a good new entry!
It's just a jab at CD, but I'm surprised those two story elements actually relate to Perfect Dark. It's not a hot take, time and again the same criticisms have been levelled at the Tomb Raider trilogy by many posters, not only myself.
You're exactly right, I just checked google for the name of the main character. Why would I need to "study up" on a game that's years away and I might or might not be interested in buying, depending on its trailer?
Sorry I made you so mad about your game.