Perfect Dark was one of the biggest projects gutted by Microsoft's latest round of layoffs, which is really saying something given one of the other canceled games is an MMO. The rebooted shooter was in under-wraps development for several years before a fantastic-looking debuted just last year—and now that all that work is circling the drain, the voice behind Joanna Dark herself is desperate to save it.
Alix Wilton Regan, who you might also know as the female player character in Dragon Age: Inquisition, took to X with mourning the game's cancellation.
Joanna is resilient. Determined. Creative. Caring. Strong. Agent Dark doesn’t give up & neither should any of you. It’s been an honour to work with the talents at The Initiative. My heart hurts for everyone affected by today. But like Joanna, we will all rise again.❤️AWR / JD pic.twitter.com/au29E04APG
She followed that up a day later with making a more direct call for action: "I HOPE WE LIVE IN A NICE WORLD," telling fans to "speak up if you wanna see Perfect Dark survive" and using the hashtag #PerfectPickUp.
Ignoring the fact that one of the most recent posts using that hashtag is a 2016 photo of a 1954 Chevrolet 3100 pickup truck, it's an admirable attempt to rally support for the long-dormant series.
A lot of people have been reaching out and floating this idea on my timeline, my phone and in my [[link]] DMs, so I’m just gonna say it: I HOPE WE LIVE IN A NICE WORLD 🤞🤞🤞 #PerfectDark #PerfectPickUp speak up if you wanna see Perfect Dark survive 🤞🤞🤞 https://t.co/P9cdDQITND
Regan isn't the only actor disappointed the game was canned. Elias Toufexis, the gravelly voice of Adam Jensen, didn't ask for this either; in on X, he said he'd blocked out several days for his role in the game. Now that it's not coming out, he's not getting "thousands of dollars that I expected and counted on."
Toufexis, who will voice the lead role in the upcoming action-adventure , continued in the thread: "Now every game I do as director or actor I wake up hoping it isn’t canceled … I’m a freelance contract worker and I have other games and shows. The devs and designers and writers are employees and are now [[link]] unemployed. This is happening way too often."
These games getting canceled is a constant threat. I had a good amount of days of acting in Perfect Dark that just got scrapped. Thousands of dollars that I expected and counted on gone in a snap. ..now every game I do as director or actor I wake up hoping it isn’t canceled. pic.twitter.com/neZiX1xDLH
Toufexis clarified in a follow-up that [[link]] he didn't "lose money owed" because of the cancellation, but had "days held for my work on the game that would have been thousands [of] dollars" that he now won't be paid for.
Microsoft isn't likely to just hand the scrapped project to whoever's asking, but I do hope the team and their work gets some sort of justice. The Initiative's closure is another in a long string of bloodbaths within Xbox's huge array of studios—that it happened before it even released its first game is an extra slap in the face to everyone who put over a half-decade of hard work in.