In the late 1990s, Rare’s Perfect Dark was one of the Nintendo 64’s defining shooters, a spiritual successor to GoldenEye 007 that cemented Joanna Dark as a cult gaming icon. Yet after Microsoft acquired Rare in 2002, the franchise’s future became uncertain. Now, two decades later, fresh reports suggest that Perfect Dark narrowly missed out on a very different fate one tied to a last-minute deal that almost saw Take-Two Interactive step in to keep the series alive.

According to insiders familiar with Rare’s transition period, Microsoft wasn’t the only company courting the studio. Take-Two, then rising fast as the publisher of Grand Theft Auto III and Mafia, was reportedly interested in securing certain Rare IPs outright. Perfect Dark was said to be at the top of that list, with the publisher viewing Joanna Dark as a potential franchise lead who could stand alongside Lara Croft and Rockstar’s growing cast of antiheroes.

The talks, which took place just before Microsoft finalized its purchase, allegedly centered around licensing rights that would have allowed Take-Two to develop and publish new Perfect Dark titles independently of Rare’s other projects. While the deal never materialized, sources claim it was close enough to be considered “on the table” until negotiations fell apart in the final weeks of 2002.

Had it gone through, the trajectory of the series might have been very different. Instead of Perfect Dark Zero launching as an Xbox 360 exclusive in 2005, fans could have seen a PlayStation 2 or even a multiplatform release years earlier under Take-Two’s stewardship. Given the publisher’s investment in gritty storytelling and experimental open-world design, it’s easy to imagine Joanna Dark in a much darker, more cinematic series of games during the mid-2000s.

In hindsight, the failed deal highlights just how pivotal the early 2000s were for shaping the industry’s major players. Microsoft secured Rare and its catalogue to strengthen the Xbox brand, while Take-Two doubled down on Rockstar and 2K Games, laying the foundation for the blockbuster hits that would define the next decade. Perfect Dark, meanwhile, became a franchise remembered as much for its potential as for its limited run.

With The Initiative’s reboot still in development, the story of how Perfect Dark almost became a Take-Two property is a fascinating “what if” in gaming history. It raises the question: would Joanna Dark have thrived under a publisher known for pushing boundaries, or was her fate always destined to be complicated by the changing tides of the industry?