Take-Two Interactive Software, the publisher behind Ken Levine’s next game Judas, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series, and the upcoming Borderlands 4, was in talks to save the recently canceled Perfect Dark reboot, according to a new report from Bloomberg. While Crystal Dynamics owner Embracer Group was close to striking this deal with Take-Two, negotiations ultimately failed, leading to last week’s layoffs at Crystal Dynamics.
Bloomberg writes that Embracer “had come close to striking a deal” with Take-Two to purchase the game from Xbox, which owned the rights, but that discussions collapsed “at least in part because the companies involved were unable to come to terms over long-term ownership of the Perfect Dark franchise,” according to its sources.
Unfortunately, with layoffs at Crystal Dynamics and these negotiations ending, it seems the Perfect Dark reboot is officially dead.
Xbox and The Initiative, a new studio formed specifically for this game, revealed this Perfect Dark reboot in 2020. We learned The Initiative was teaming up with Tomb Raider series developer Crystal Dynamics in 2021, and a long three years later, in 2024, we got our first look at Perfect Dark gameplay.
That 2024 gameplay showing was the last we saw or heard about Perfect Dark before it was canceled in July.
[Source: Bloomberg]