Microsoft as a company have announced it’s laying off 4% of it’s global workforce, with many Xbox Studios being hit.

It’s been a horrible day for the games industry, with Microsoft announcing layoffs across multiple Xbox Studios. Unfortunately the bad news doesn’t look to be stopping anytime soon with Windows Central reporting that Perfect Dark has also been cancelled and the developing studio The Initiative being shuttered.

This follows the news that ZeniMax and King will be hit by layoffs, with ZeniMax’s long in development new MMO and Rare’s highly anticipated Everwild have also being cancelled.

Perfect Dark has been in development for 7 years, first being announced in 2018, headed up by Darrell Gallagher who moved from Crystal Dynamics to The Initiative as it was set up. It was later announced in 2021 that Crystal Dynamics would be partnering with Xbox to develop the revival of the beloved Nintendo 64 stealth franchise from 2000, 13 years after the previous entry Perfect Dark Zero for the Xbox 360.

The game had a troubled development with, The Coalition and Certain Affinity both confirmed to be supporting. In 2022 shortly after the announcement Crystal Dynamics would be partnering with The Initiative it was also reported development had restarted in Unreal Engine 5 after 4 years of development in Unreal Engine 4.