The Initiative's unannounced AAA Xbox game has "weapons, gadgets, and camera surveillance"

(Image credit: The Initiative)

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 profile of the studio's former technical designer, Christopher Ng (as spotted by Klobrille 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. 

Xbox boss Phil Spencer previously teased that The Initiative is doing "old things in new ways," so it could be working on some sort of series reboot or revival.

Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.