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The unannounced first-party Xbox game in the works at The Initiative reportedly features “various weapons, gadgets, and a camera surveillance system.”
These features were described in the LinkedIn (opens in new tab) profile of the studio’s former technical designer, Christopher Ng (as spotted by Klobrille (opens in new tab) on Twitter). Ng left The Initiative in February 2020 to work at VR studio Wevr, but he was in a senior role at The Initiative for around eight months, so his words definitely have weight. Now, plenty of games could feature weapons, gadgets, and surveillance cameras, but with virtually nothing else to go on as of yet, any descriptor of The Initiative’s new game is useful.
Ng’s profile also confirms that the game is being made in Unreal Engine 4 and contains “various world interactables and gameplay objects, such as doors, destructibles, hazards, triggers, and much more.” Again, these can be found in any number of games, but Ng’s description does at least trend toward an action-driven title. This is consistent with The Initiative’s rockstar staff of third-person action-adventure veterans, ranging from Tomb Raider and God of War designers to Red Dead Redemption and Ratchet & Clank creators.
Sadly, The Initiative’s job listing for a new lead technical designer (opens in new tab) doesn’t tell us much more about what it’s working on. Like the many other listings at the studio, it stresses its plans to “challenge how games are crafted” and “create groundbreaking experiences.” The listing for a senior tools engineer (opens in new tab) is a bit more informative in that it describes the studio’s upcoming game as “hitting a AAA quality bar,” but actual gameplay details are thin on the ground. Like, a single drop of water spread across an ice rink thin on the ground.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer previously teased (opens in new tab) that The Initiative is doing “old things in new ways,” so it could be working on some sort of series reboot or revival.
