The Initiative, one of the many Microsoft studios working on next gen games, has been hard at work on a secret game for the company and is now adding two former Naughty Dog developers to the studio.
Lauren Garcia, who worked at Naughty Dog as a Character Shading Technical Director joins The Initiative as part of Senior Shading Technologies while Lee Davis, who was Head of Melee Animation at the PlayStation developer, will now join the team as a Lead Gameplay Animator.
This isn’t the first time this year the developer has hired new staff as The Initiative also hired former Uncharted 4 developer Sylvia Chambers, an animator who previously worked for Naughty Dog and also worked on Battlefield V for DICE. Chamber’s portfolio also includes work on the film Thor: Ragnarok, where she worked as a shot creator.
The Initiative was formed in 2018 and was one of the many studios announced as part of Microsoft’s push for internal development teams making exclusive games. Microsoft unveiled the studio at E3 where the company also announced several acquisitions including Playground Games, Ninja Theory, and Undead Labs.
While whatever The Initiative has been working on is shrouded in secrecy with Microsoft remaining quiet, GamesBeat editor Jeff Grubb, who is notorious for having insider information on game announcements, has stated he has heard that The Initiative is hard at work on a game relating to Perfect Dark. The new game is said to have a focus on 3rd person gameplay, a big change from the series’ typical FPS combat.
While Microsoft has owned the Perfect Dark franchise since the company purchased Rare in 2002, only one new game in series has been released since, in the form of Perfect Dark Zero on the Xbox 360. The latest entry in the series was a remaster of the original N64 game in 2010. While it hasn’t been confirmed what The Initiative’s new game will be, Microsoft Head Phil Spencer has stated he has visited the studio and played the game, suggesting development is going smoothly.
While Perfect Dark fans are eager to see if the rumors are true, Microsoft has helped satiate the wait a bit by recently announcing that Xbox 360 cloud save data can be transferred to the Xbox Series X. The move makes it easier for players to bring progress over from the console and continue to play games like Perfect Dark Zero. With xCloud enabling players to play anywhere and Game Pass having a huge library of games, it’s a good time to by a Microsoft fan.
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