Discussing the return of Perfect Dark, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has said that the reboot will add some diversity to a predominantly male first-party lineup.
- READ MORE: ‘Halo Infinite’ developer 343 industries is right – gaming shouldn’t feel like “a second job”
Phil Spencer was speaking on the IGN Unlocked podcast when he commented “I think it’s awesome that, for us, we can focus on a female protagonist in our line-up”, noting “we don’t have a lot of that” in the Xbox first-party lineup.
Following up, he states “I think Joanna offers a lot of modern opportunities that I love to see the team focusing on”
The upcoming reboot was first announced in 2020 and is being developed by The Initiative, a studio that is part of Xbox Game Studios.
Studio Head Darrell Gallagher has a positive history of franchise reboots – during his time at Crystal Dynamics, he was Studio Head for the 2013 Tomb Raider revival. Spencer comments that “obviously he had a great track record at Crystal”, although plans for a Perfect Dark reboot started before Gallagher joined them.
On the subject of the remaster, Spencer admits that Perfect Dark Zero “wasn’t as well-received as we would’ve wanted” and says “it was challenging” to get the game ready for launch.
The original Perfect Dark, made by Rare, followed agent Joanna Dark in the near-future as she underwent missions to combat the company DataDyne. The upcoming reboot does not currently have a release date.
Perfect Dark was originally launched for the Nintendo 64 in 2000, however it has since been been remastered for the Xbox 360 in 2010. In 2015, it was included in the Rare Replay bundle.
Speaking on the same podcast, Phil Spencer also explained why he supports studio acquisitions while “understanding” disagreement within the community.
In other news, Escape From Tarkov has been updated to make the Scav karma system fairer for players – mainly by removing reputation punishments for player-controlled scavs defending themselves.
The post Phil Spencer believes ‘Perfect Dark’ reboot is “awesome” for diversity appeared first on NME.
