Crystal Dynamics has two sub studios that help with development of games, CD NorthWest which is in Bellevue Washington and CD SouthWest which is in Austin Texas so either one is likely helping in developing Perfect Dark.

Crystal Dynamics news could tell us The Initiative can now focus on a second game while overseeing the development done by CD. I think going forward, there will always be 2-3 games being developed/managed by The Initiative.

Hopefully we'll see more of Perfect Dark at the Games Awards with "Fall 2023" message at the end of the trailer.

Building a studio really takes a lot of time and especially getting experienced help.  People believe that just hiring a developer is all that it takes but a lot of times it can take at least 2 years for a developer to get the hang of a new development studio resources and code.  Even very experienced developers take about 6 months unless the studio is using the exact platform they are use to without a lot of custom code.  Partnering with a AAA studio at this point in time is a very smart move because they can move quickly if all the planning, designs etc are done and they can get to creating the content.

Do not look to much into this then understanding that the Initiative need to hit whatever release date they have set for themselves and the business and they were able to partner with a AAA studio to get the job done.  Its not like we see in credits for games many different 3rd party studios that help get games to the finish line so nothing really new on this front.

Did anyone else get the second email about the Halo Infinite flight, telling them to go to HaloWaypoint and check their messages....but then have no messages on Waypoint?

I think you are overestimating it's potential. JFYI even AAA Scarlet Nexus failed to meet 1m sales on all platforms combined in more than 3 months and it even had discounts and you expect something like Trials of Mana to easily hit 100k on Xbox. As for the games in question, I think the more comparable release to them would be something like Blaster Master Zero 3 which Inti Creates released this year. A great game btw, which I absolutely recommend, one of the best games released this year. Can you guess the amount of players this game has on TrueAchievements? And it's almost two times cheaper than Actraiser remake and Yoko Taro card RPG. So, my point still stands, Square is not to blame here. It's weighed business decision plain and simple. It's not them having a grudge against Xbox and deliberately not releasing games there. At this point we can also blame Square for not bringing these games on Stadia, idk.

Very underwhelming. Little graphical improvements (other than the obvious resolution and framerate). Only the character faces are noticeably different.

In Alan's case that's not for the best. He looks completely different and IMHO just as outdated as the original.

I've always heard about it but had never seen it before.  I watched an 11 year old IGN review on it just to get a feel of what it was.  It looks like something I may want to check out on my projector setup in full darkness and the improvements will help some.  

Looks pretty good to me.  Its a remaster with better textures, lighting and resolution, not sure what more you were looking for.  I personally have no real interest to replay the game but this looks solid to me.