Perfect Dark Design Director Leaves The Initiative, Rejoins Insomniac Games

A crack in time.

Updated:Feb 23, 2021 11:26am UTC

Update 2/23/2021:

After leaving the Perfect Dark project, The Initiative's former Design Director Drew Murray has revealed that he has rejoined his old studio Insomniac Games.

I guess ten years, five games, and six job titles just wasn't enough. I'm excited to be rejoining many friends and former colleagues at@insomniacgames as a Principal Designer. That takes me to my seventh job title; now I just need to work some days and make some games, right?pic.twitter.com/gCK4z4OVUY
— Drew Murray (@PlaidKnuckles)February 22, 2021

"I'm excited to be rejoining my many friends and former colleagues at Insomniac Games as a Principal Designer,"Murray's tweet reads. Murray previously worked on games like Resistance, Ratchet & Clank and Sunset Overdrive before leaving in 2016 to work at The Initiative.

The Design Director of Perfect Dark studio The Initiative has announced that he is leaving the project.

The Initiative's Drew Murrayrevealed the news on Twitter (as spotted byVGC). Murray previously worked on Resistance, Ratchet & Clank and Sunset Overdrive at Insomniac Games beforeleaving in 2018 to help kickstart the Microsoft first-party studio. He is leaving to focus on his "life outside of work" and tweeted that the goodbye felt bittersweet after working with "such a talented and experienced team."

After two wild years helping start@TheInitiative @Xbox and rebooting#PerfectDark, it's time for me to say a tearful and bittersweet goodbye to my team at The Initiative.

(1/5)pic.twitter.com/LIY9AQDyTV
— Drew Murray (@PlaidKnuckles)February 1, 2021

"The team has the vision and talent to knock the game and franchise out of the park," Murray tweeted in regards to the future of the project, noting that the reveal trailer still gives him goosebumps. Interestingly, Murray points out that, when he joined The Initiative, he wasn't aware that the team would be working on a Perfect Dark game.

Murray says that the silver lining of this is that he will get to experience Perfect Dark as a fan on launch day. The Perfect Dark reboot project was announced in December of 2020 during The Game Awards and is promising to deliver an "eco sci-fi" first-person shooter. You can learn more about the gamein our coverage of its reveal.

Santa Monica-based studio The Initiative was revealed by Microsoft in 2018 and famouslydescribed as looking for 'AAAA' standards in job listings. The development team is currently being led by Darrell Gallagher, aveteran of Rockstar Games, Crystal Dynamics and Activision where he worked on games such as GTA IV and Tomb Raider.

God of War Lead Producer Brian Westergaard and Red Dead Redemption Lead Writer Christian Cantamessa arealso working at The Initiative, most likely contributing to Perfect Dark. It's part of Microsoft's growing roster of studiosfollowing its recent acquisition of Zenimax Media.

Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN.Follow him on Twitter.