Perfect Dark has largely managed to avoid leaks since it was first announced, and while fans still have precious little information about the game, one recent statement may indicate that the wait for information is almost over. GamesBeat reporter Jeff Grubb recently said on the XboxEra podcast that he expects Perfect Dark to appear at E3 2022, alongside major 2022 Xbox releases like Starfield and Redfall. While Microsoft hasn’t given fans any clues on whether Perfect Dark will appear at E3, Grubb’s claims are far from outlandish. The Initiative’s Perfect Dark reboot was announced at the end of 2020, so a gameplay reveal is long overdue.
An E3 2022 appearance makes sense for Perfect Dark, but it shouldn’t be the only game there. Microsoft has a lot of projects without release dates right now, and some of them are significantly older announcements than Perfect Dark. It’d be quite a surprise if The Initiative’s new game beats some of Microsoft’s other elusive IPs to the punch with a gameplay reveal. Microsoft may decide to focus on major 2022 releases at E3, meaning it’s unclear if there’s room for a lot of other gameplay reveals, but the fact remains that Perfect Dark has several peers that are also in need of a reappearance.
Perfect Dark’s Potential E3 Companions
If Perfect Dark will be at E3 2022, then Fable ought to be there in some way too. The two games may belong to very different genres, but they still have a notable bond in that they’re both revivals of beloved franchises that have laid dormant for many years. Playground Games’ Fable title was announced about half a year before Perfect Dark, and Playground has apparently been working on Fable for years, so there ought to be at least a little Fable 4 content worth revealing by now. Perfect Dark could certainly use the company of a fellow reboot.
Beyond reboots, Obsidian Entertainment’s Avowed seems like a shoo-in for E3 2022. One Microsoft insider recently suggested that Avowed could release in late 2022, or at least early 2023. If the game is really that close, then revealing Avowed gameplay at E3 makes perfect sense. Much like Fable and Perfect Dark, there are still a lot of questions in the air surrounding Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity successor, so a new trailer focusing on both plot and gameplay would be very valuable to Microsoft’s E3 presentation.
Microsoft’s E3 Priorities
While Avowed, Fable, and Perfect Dark all deserve an appearance at E3 2022, they may not make the cut. It wouldn’t be surprising if Microsoft wants to focus heavily on Bethesda’s late 2022 RPG Starfield, now that Bethesda belongs to the Xbox Game Studios family. There are plenty of other 2022 releases that need some publicity from Microsoft, like STALKER 2, Ark 2, and Redfall. Since they don’t even have release windows yet, Perfect Dark, Avowed, and Fable may not be destined for 2022 releases, meaning they’re slightly less likely to take up time at Microsoft’s E3 presentation than more timely Xbox titles.
Still, Microsoft is no stranger to covering far-off games at E3; after all, Starfield got its November 2022 release date at E3 2021. It wouldn’t be surprising if at least one of these missing games releases new information at E3, whether it’s simply a story cinematic or a proper gameplay reveal. Perfect Dark has a good shot at E3, thanks to The Initiative’s collaboration with Crystal Dynamics and a few years of completed work on the game, but there’s still hope for Fable and Avowed too. These major Xbox IPs can’t stay hidden forever; eventually, they’ll need to strut their stuff and celebrate everything that developers have achieved. E3 2022 seems like the right time to give some of them the spotlight.
Perfect Dark is in development.
