Footage From Canceled Perfect Dark Reboot Surfaces, Showing Off Fruit Physics and Parkour
New footage of Xbox’s canceled Perfect Dark reboot has appeared online, via a report from gaming website MP1st. The footage, seemingly acquired from a VFX developer’s portfolio, shows destructible environments, sci-fi weapons, and more.
Developer The Initiative shut down last year, before the LA-based studio could get its first Xbox project out of the door. The studio was spun up in 2018 and was being heavily supported by Crystal Dynamics, which was also forced to lay off staff in the wake of the cancellation.
LEAKED | Perfect Dark — 2 mins of GameplayPerfect Dark is a cancelled first-person shooter game that was under development by The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics https://t.co/w5adSFPFem— Idle Sloth (@IdleSloth84_) October 6, 2026
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LEAKED | Perfect Dark — 2 mins of GameplayPerfect Dark is a cancelled first-person shooter game that was under development by The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics https://t.co/w5adSFPFem
The footage shows developers testing weapons in greybox environments, as well as fleshed out levels, using parkour for traversal and testing the reactivity of environments. Even at this early stage, it looked like the team was really pushing next-gen fruit destruction.
It’s only a short clip, clearly cut together as some kind of portfolio piece for the VFX developer. The clip focuses on explosions, as well as weapons and environmental effects, primarily.
Joanna Dark actress Alix Wilton Regan previously stated that the game was "pretty far along." She continued: "I'd done entire chapters of this universe."
According to Bloomberg, a deal to revive the Perfect Dark reboot almost materialized. Rockstar parent company Take-Two expressed an interest in financing the game, but the deal fell through for reasons that aren’t clear. Doom developer id Software had also been "toying with pitches" for a Perfect Dark game.
This would have been the first Perfect Dark game since Rare’s Perfect Dark Zero, which launched as an Xbox 360 launch title in November 2005 to mixed reviews. Rare’s mysterious new game, Everwild, was canceled along with Perfect Dark.
Last month, Halo Studios also suffered layoffs. Halo has been given to Activision, who will assign a team to work on the next game in the series.
Hellblade developer Ninja Theory is also closing down. Despite showing off its new game, Senua, at a recent Xbox showcase, Microsoft has pulled the plug as part of sweeping changes for its big Xbox reset.
Xbox has moved Age of Empires developer World's Edge and Sea of Thieves developer Rare under the Activision umbrella. Outside Activision, Obsidian, developer of Grounded and The Outer Worlds is now a Bethesda studio working on a new Fallout game.