Microsoft was reportedly “really happy” with Perfect Dark prior to its cancellation

One of the biggest video game projects to have been cancelled in 2025 was Perfect Dark. Announced all the way back in 2020 as a reboot to the classic series, the title struggled with development issues, lay-offs, turnover and much more. That said, up until the game’s surprise cancellation earlier this year, Perfect Dark seemed to be in a much more stable state, with the game’s lead actor now weighing in on the matter.

In an interview conducted by publication TheGamer, Alix Wilton-Regan (the VA for Joanna Dark) spoke on the ill-fated Perfect Dark reboot and their reaction to the news, stating:

“I was as shocked, surprised, and devastated as everyone else was when the funding was pulled, and the studio was closed. I did not see it coming. I was absolutely blindsided when the project was defunded.”

As mentioned, Perfect Dark had been in varying states of development between its announcement in 2020 and cancellation in 2025. According to Wilton-Regan however the project seemed to be finally coming together, revealing:

“We were basically recording bits and bobs throughout '23. We were also doing lots of performance capture for it in '24, and we were even recording more stuff for it in '25. To my knowledge, we were pretty far along. I'd done entire chapters of this universe,” adding that the project had “delivered several milestones that the client was really happy with.”

Based on this, it is quite clear that Microsoft’s decision to cancel Perfect Dark (alongside other in-development projects) was a rather impulsive one which took seemingly everyone by surprise. It remains a shame that we will never see the fruits of The Initiative’s half-a-decade worth of work.

KitGuru says: What do you think of the whole Perfect Dark situation? Why did Microsoft cancel the game? Should they have given the developers a heads-up? Let us know down below.

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