Report: Perfect Dark Gameplay Demo was 'Smoke and Mirrors' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 July 2025 / 2,908 Views
Microsoft today announced it is laying off upwards of 9,100 employees, including at the Xbox division. Perfect Dark, Everwild, and an MMORPG from ZeniMax Online Studios have been cancelled, and developer The Initiative is being shut down.
Perfect Dark has been called a "long-troubled project" by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier.
Insider Shinobi on ResetEra claims the Perfect Dark gameplay demo was mostly "smoke and mirrors."
"My understanding is it was mostly 'smoke and mirrors', more of a target vertical slice than a tangible 'game'," said Shinobi. "It's gone through a lot of problems."
Another member on ResetEra claims, "Oh, now that PD has been canceled, I can freely say that the public showing last year was largely bunk. None of that was gameplay and all CD has been doing on the game is making exciting vertical slices with little to no foundation. I am not shocked at all it got the axe."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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Another series that just can't catch a break...
Hires all the help they can get, even got crystal dynamics and they still can't get the job done,
Microsoft can't handle game studios,
Sack Microsoft don't lay off devs lol (in a perfect world lol)
Until next time Joanna Dark.
Xbox really been going through it.
Perfect Dark hurts, one of my most anticipated games, but if it wasn't going to be good, then its best to leave the IP alone. Sad times for me.
The digital Foundry breakdown is hilarious in retrospect. No gameplay at all. Trailer gets completely glazed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW_ssHy918I
You can see in the description that they outright thought it was just a vertical slice and the analysis was just around what the gameplay intentions were going to be.
when they built The Initiative studios I remember how it was branded as a team that is supposed to make AAA games as we have never seen before with top names of the industry in there.
I remember how disappointed I was when they showed the game they worked on was... a remake of Perfect Dark. And don't get me wrong, I loved Perfect Dark. Even on 360 with Zero.
I wonder how much money they have wasted with this thing.
Bummer. The trailer they showed last year was very exciting, but knowing what we know now, I'm not surprised it was canceled. The Initiative was always on life support with its unorthodox game development.
I thought that the day it was shown. Digital Foundry even immediately called it a vertical slice, it should ahve been obvious.
it looked too good to be true, I guess now we know.
Essay Pro