Perfect Dark Loses Its First Design Director
After two years of working at Microsoft's The Initiative and helping establish the new studio, Perfect Dark design director Drew Murray announced via Twitter that he's stepping down due to personal reasons.
Murray thanked his team, tweeting, "It's been extraordinary working shoulder-to-shoulder with such a talented and experienced team, many of whom are great friends now." Murray stated that he needed time to tend to his personal life. He explained, "[M]y life outside of work needs more attention and headspace than I have been able to give it lately." Murray didn't go into detail about his personal life or what drew him away from the project, but his tweets expressed nothing but the utmost respect for the rest of the team, indicating that his departure is more personal than professionally-motivated.
Most interestingly, Murray's departure provided a bit of new insight to Perfect Dark fans. He stated that when he first joined The Initiative, he didn't know what game he'd be working on. "Mystery surrounded the project when I joined the studio," Murray tweeted, " I didn't know what kind of game it was." These tweets suggest that The Initiative had a lot of setting-up to do before digging into Perfect Dark officially, which makes sense, considering it was a brand new studio.
Murray joined The Initiative before anyone really knew what it was, way back in 2018. After years of working for Insomniac Games, Murray made the move to The Initiative after a well deserved break. His previous work on the Ratchet and Clank series and Sunset Overdrive made Murray a great catch for The Initiative, and doubtlessly his influence will be seen in Perfect Dark, even though he has departed the project.
The Initiative revealed its first big project at The Game Awards 2020, dropping a trailer for Perfect Dark in one of the biggest surprises of the night. While The Initiative was shrouded in secrecy for two years, the studio was clearly building a dream team of video game professionals to craft a detailed project.
It's not all bad news, though: Murray stated that he'd be joining the legions of Perfect Dark fans eagerly awaiting its release. While there's not much info about when Perfect Dark will be released, fans can content themselves with a breathtaking cinematic trailer and the knowledge that a top notch team is working on making Perfect Dark the best it can be. If Drew Murray believes in the team, it seems like fans should, too.