Not every video game gets a second chance once its heyday passes. Usually, if a game franchise fades away and stops releasing entries regularly, it’s accepted that its time is over. Not so for Perfect Dark. At The Game Awards 2020, The Initiative finally revealed that it’s working on a new installment in the Perfect Dark franchise, which hasn’t seen a game released since 2010. Perfect Dark may be some 20 years old, but at its prime it was critically acclaimed, and it’s far from lacking in fans today. Joanna Dark’s resurgence is something that some fans have been waiting for, and now it’s finally here.
However, Perfect Dark‘s reboot has a small problem: nobody knows yet when the game will release. That’s not too big a deal, necessarily, since the game was only announced a month ago. Even so, announcing a game without any form of release window sets a precedent for vagueness that could mean trouble in the long run. It’s a problem Perfect Dark has in common with another major title under Microsoft’s purview: Avowed. Fans are chomping at the bit to know when Obsidian’s next fantasy RPG drops, but Avowed‘s release is a mystery. Both games could be extremely lucrative Xbox Series X exclusives, so when are they coming out?
Perfect Dark‘s lack of specificity might not be an immediate cause for concern, but Avowed fans have cause to start getting antsy. Avowed was announced almost six months ago and Obsidian hasn’t had anything more to say about it. Some might object that Obsidian is probably just focused on Grounded, which is still in early access and hasn’t released a final version yet. However, Grounded is supposed to finish early access sometime in 2021, and considering early access has been open since the end of July 2020, it can’t last too much longer. Obsidian will have to say something about Avowed before too long, or it might join the Elden Ring club.
It’s no secret that Elden Ring‘s fans are sad and frustrated that From Software hasn’t revealed anything about the game since it was announced. Now fans have gone so far as writing their own Elden Ring lore and developing their own version of the game. It’s a surprising and drastic course of action, but if it happened once, it could happen again. Avowed and Perfect Dark don’t want to follow in Elden Ring‘s footsteps by developing a reputation for secrecy. Unfortunately, Avowed may be on the path to having such an extended silence, and Perfect Dark could do the same if nobody knows when it’ll actually release.
Admittedly, The Initiative and Obsidian have a second problem in common. The COVID-19 pandemic carries on, and even as vaccines start to roll out, it’s hard to say when exactly conferences and announcements will come out. E3 2021 will reportedly be held in some form after last year’s E3 was canceled, but does Microsoft want to wait that long? It certainly has the resources to put a digital conference together before E3 2021 in June. That’s not out of the realm of possibility, but it still isn’t easy to assemble these conferences while working around pandemic restrictions.
There’s one thing that might set Perfect Dark apart from Avowed for now. A tweet from the game’s design director suggests that Perfect Dark has been in a playable state for several months, which means it could be a lot closer to release than Avowed. If that’s the case, fans can be optimistic that The Initiative will have more to say on the game over the next few months. It’s definitely a good thing if Perfect Dark can break away from the type of lingering silence that Avowed is slowly sinking into. Hopefully Obsidian has a plan to keep Avowed from languishing in obscurity.
Perfect Dark is in development.
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