A spiritual successor to Rare’s 1997 first-person shooter GoldenEye 007, the Nintendo 64 title Perfect Dark has remained a fan-favorite for the past 22 years. Although a remaster hit the Xbox 360 in 2010, players are ready to see Joanna Dark in glorious 4K. A new Perfect Dark was announced in December 2020, but little has been revealed since. According to Gamesbeat’s Jeff Grubb, the first bit of gameplay footage might make an appearance at E3 2022 in June.
On The Xbox Era podcast, Grubb began discussing the large list of games that Microsoft currently has in development without release dates.
“Perfect Dark could come out in 2023, could easily come out in 2024, but I think we’ll probably get Avowed, we’ll probably get Perfect Dark, at that point they will have had close to five full years of development,” he said.
“They will definitely spend a lot of time on Starfield, they will probably spend a lot of time on Redfall, and Forza Motorsport 8, but then they’re gonna have a lot of room to talk about ‘okay, here’s where we’re gonna be in 2023’, and the games that they talk about there are likely going to be the games that you will be getting in 2023, I expect to get gameplay of Perfect Dark and stuff like that at that point.”
For the third year in a row, E3 will be held virtually with no in-person component. Details are yet to be revealed, though last year, the ESA held three days of live-streamed coverage. Geoff Keighley, the founder of The Game Awards, has also confirmed that his digital event Summer Games Fest will also take place in June.
While The Initiative was initially spearheading the project, Crystal Dynamics joined in September 2021.
The original Perfect Dark was released in 2000 for the Nintendo 64. In the first game in the series, players control agent Joanna Dark as she attempts to stop an extraterrestrial conspiracy by a rival corporation. Widely praised for its graphics, AI, and the number of multiplayer options it boasted, the game recieved a remaster in 2010. Given how far gaming has come in the last twelve years, it’s time for a new adventure.