Leaked Footage of Canceled Perfect Dark Reboot Shows Off Parkour and Fruit Physics

Ever wondered what Xbox's canceled Perfect Dark reboot looked like in action? Thanks to a new leak, you can now see it for yourself.

According to a report from MP1st, footage of the canceled game has appeared online, seemingly taken from a VFX developer's portfolio. The clip shows destructible environments, sci-fi weapons, and even some next-level fruit destruction. Yes, you read that right—fruit physics were apparently a big focus.

The footage, which is about three minutes long, shows developers testing weapons in greybox environments and more fleshed-out levels. They're using parkour for traversal and testing how reactive the environments are. It's clearly a portfolio piece, focusing on explosions, weapons, and environmental effects. But even in this early state, it's clear the team was pushing for something impressive.

The game was in development at The Initiative, a studio spun up in 2018. It was being heavily supported by Crystal Dynamics, but last year, The Initiative was shut down before its first Xbox project could launch. Crystal Dynamics also faced layoffs after the cancellation.

Joanna Dark actress Alix Wilton Regan previously said the game was "pretty far along" and that she'd "done entire chapters of this universe." So it's not just a tiny prototype—there was real progress.

According to Bloomberg, a deal to revive the reboot almost happened. Take-Two, Rockstar's parent company, expressed interest in financing the game, but the deal fell through for unknown reasons. Doom developer id Software had also been "toying with pitches" for a Perfect Dark game.

This would have been the first Perfect Dark game since Rare's Perfect Dark Zero, which launched as an Xbox 360 launch title in November 2005 to mixed reviews. Rare's mysterious new game, Everwild, was canceled along with Perfect Dark.

The cancellations don't stop there. Last month, Halo Studios suffered layoffs, and Halo has been given to Activision, who will assign a team to work on the next game. Hellblade developer Ninja Theory is also closing down. Despite showing off its new game, Senua, at a recent Xbox showcase, Microsoft pulled the plug as part of sweeping changes for its big Xbox reset. Xbox has moved Age of Empires developer World's Edge and Sea of Thieves developer Rare under the Activision umbrella. Outside Activision, Obsidian, developer of Grounded and The Outer Worlds, is now a Bethesda studio working on a new Fallout game.

It's a lot of upheaval for Xbox fans. But at least we got a glimpse of what could have been with Perfect Dark. What do you think about the leaked footage? Will you be picking up any of these upcoming games? Let us know in the comments!