Darrell Gallagher and Brian Horton were two of those responsible for The Initiative until Microsoft decided to close the studio and cancel Perfect Dark, a move that also had a great impact on Crystal Dynamics, which collaborated in development. At that moment the possibility arose that a new publisher would finish financing the project and Take-Two appeared, which proposed taking over the production and distribution of Perfect Dark, and in the process acquiring the intellectual property. The agreement did not materialize, but Take-Two has not missed the possibility of staying with those responsible for The Initiative and Perfect Dark.
As explained in their LinkedIn profile, Darrell Gallagher joins 2K as senior vice president and studio director with the aim of creating a new team and leading a new project, while Brian Horton, in addition to being senior vice president, serves as creative director.
Before founding and leading The Initiative, Darrell Gallagher was head of development at Activision and participated in titles such as Sekiro, Modern Warfare (2017) and Destiny 2, during his time as studio head at Crystal Dynamics he launched the new Tomb Raider trilogy, and when he was promoted to head of product and studies at Square Enix the company launched games such as Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Just Cause 3, Life is Strange or Thief. Regarding Brian Horton, he was creative director of Marvel's Spider-Man at Insomniac Games and has participated in the production of Marvel's Wolverine. He was also creative director of Modern Warfare.
It is not the first time that 2K has tried to grow by forming a new studio led by industry veterans. In 2019 he presented Cloud Chamber and announced a new BioShock installment. Since then the studio has not shown anything and has only been in the news for replacing those responsible for the game and hiring Rod Fergusson to straighten out the BioShock franchise.