Xbox’s Excellent Darkish reboot, introduced again in 2020, has reportedly been canceled as a part of the ongoing layoffs at Microsoft. The studio growing the sport has reportedly been shut down, too.
On July 2, Home windows Central obtained an inside e mail to employees from Xbox Sport Studios head Matt Booty. Within the e mail, Booty confirmed that Excellent Darkish and different initiatives had been being canceled. He additionally confirmed that The Initiative, the staff behind the Excellent Darkish reboot, was being shut down.
“We now have made the choice to cease growth of Excellent Darkish and Everwild in addition to wind down a number of unannounced initiatives throughout our portfolio. As a part of this, we’re closing one among our studios, The Initiative,” mentioned Booty.
“These selections, together with different adjustments throughout our groups, mirror a broader effort to regulate priorities and focus assets to arrange our groups for better success inside a altering business panorama. We didn’t make these selections calmly, as every undertaking and staff characterize years of effort, creativeness, and dedication.”
Booty instructed employees that in the event that they had been “instantly affected” by the layoffs and studio shutdown, they may apply for different roles inside Xbox and that HR would “present assist.”
The cancellation is a component of a bigger spherical of layoffs at Microsoft. Round 9,000 persons are reportedly dropping their jobs, with many Xbox staff affected by the cuts. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer defined in a memo to employees that the layoffs “finish or lower work in sure areas of the enterprise and observe Microsoft’s lead in eradicating layers of administration to extend agility and effectiveness.”
Excellent Darkish was first revealed through a brief teaser trailer again in December 2020. It was set to be a reboot of the authentic N64 recreation. The brand new Excellent Darkish was being developed by The Initiative, a studio situated in Santa Monica that was created by Xbox in 2018. A couple of 12 months after its first teaser, it was introduced that Crystal Dynamics was serving to develop the Excellent Darkish reboot. In 2023, an IGN report claimed that growth on Excellent Darkish was a little bit of a multitude, attributable to poor administration and artistic variations between the groups. At one level, it restarted growth and shifted to Unreal Engine 5.
Kotaku has reached out to Xbox for extra info.
In 2024, Xbox revealed the primary gameplay for Excellent Darkish, and the response was largely optimistic. The sport regarded nice, with beautiful visuals, a slick artwork fashion, and gameplay that appeared like a mixture of Deus Ex, Dying Mild, and the previous Excellent Darkish video games. Nonetheless, the gameplay trailer didn’t embody a launch date. And now it appears this cool-looking reboot received’t ever see the sunshine of day.