More than two minutes of footage from Microsoft’s canceled Perfect Dark reboot show unfinished mission work, combat, and environmental interactions. The clips include several locations, a short hacking segment, weapon and enemy tests, and what appear to be physics tests. One escape sequence appears to feature Joanna Dark. The early build’s frame rate is visibly rough.
LEAKED | Perfect Dark — 2 mins of Gameplay
Perfect Dark is a cancelled first-person shooter game that was under development by The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics pic.twitter.com/w5adSFPFem
— Idle Sloth (@IdleSloth84_) October 6, 2026
VFX artist Tracey Landau supplied the footage to MP1st. Project documentation cited there placed The Initiative’s work on Vertical Slice 1 as underway since April 2025. A vertical slice is a playable proof of concept meant to represent a game’s overall quality and experience, not a finished build.
Samples of Landau’s Perfect Dark effects work include muzzle flashes, sci-fi gadgets, destructible objects, smoke, fire, and explosions.
Tracey Landau's Portfolio
My work from cancelled project Perfect Dark, showing both sci-fi effects and photorealistic environmental VFX. This includes muzzle flashes, sci-fi gadgets, destructibles, smoke, fire, explosions, and more.
The full video has a few extra seconds of… pic.twitter.com/axltaOw0xZ
— Idle Sloth (@IdleSloth84_) October 6, 2026
Microsoft announced the reboot in 2020 and first showed gameplay in 2024. The company canceled the project in 2025 amid broader changes. The Initiative, formed in 2018, was developing the game with Crystal Dynamics, and Perfect Dark was to be The Initiative’s first title.
An effort to keep the game alive also fell through. Bloomberg reported that Take-Two discussed funding and publishing the game with Microsoft and Embracer, but the talks broke down partly over long-term ownership of the franchise.
Which part of the unfinished footage gives you the clearest sense of what this version of Perfect Dark was aiming for? For more on the gameplay and effects left behind by the canceled reboot, stay connected on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.
