The Initiative, a new development studio for Xbox, has recently announced the hiring of Sylvia Chambers, an animator who worked on Uncharted 4.
At E3 in 2018 Microsoft announced a number of new studios and acquisitions, The Initiative being one of them. Based in Santa Monica, the new studio is in the process of creating their first game and has hired a number of big names in the industry.
According to Gamespot, Sylvia was an animator who worked on AAA titles like Uncharted 4, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, and Battlefield V. She also has some experience in the film industry having worked on Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok as a shot creator. While she hasn’t specified what role she’ll serve in the creation of this new game, be it animation or as a shot creator, she did mention that it was contractual.
In addition to Sylvia, The Initiative has hired other big names like Christian Catamessa who worked as a writer on Red Dead Redemption, Brian Westergaard who was lead producer for God Of War (2018), Dan Neuburger who has spent over a decade at Crystal Dynamics which is responsible for the Tomb Raider series, and Drew Murray the game director for Sunset Overdrive.
No details have been released regarding the nature of The Initiative’s first game. The new hires don’t provide any clues as they’ve worked on various titles across various genres. There are some rumors that the first title will be a reboot of a franchise owned by Xbox, though this hasn’t been corroborated.
According to Video Games Chronicle, a former designer for the studio has claimed the new game is being built on the Unreal Engine 4 and will contain “weapons, gadgets, and a camera surveillance system”. Game Debate asserts that this could very well be a reboot of the Perfect Dark franchise, a sci-fi FPS that hasn’t seen a new title since 2010.
Interestingly The Initiative has stated that while they are owned by Microsoft they are largely considered an independent studio with the creative liberties to take the project in any direction they choose. If they are in fact working on a Perfect Dark title this could be an interesting reboot of a beloved franchise. But given the number of talented individuals, like Sylvia, working on the project they could honestly start an entirely new IP that could be equally exciting.
Until further information is officially released by the studio, fans are left to speculate what the new project will be. Whatever it is, it will certainly make waves when it’s finally announced to the public.
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