Development
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The development of Dark Sector was announced on February 11, 2000, on Digital Extremes' website. The game was originally proposed as a follow up to Digital Extremes and Epic Games' critically acclaimed multiplayer first-person shooter, Unreal Tournament. However, the original plan was scrapped and the game was not spoken of for another four years, during which the game underwent a massive change in focus. The original design had the game keeping in line with its predecessor as a multiplayer arena-style first-person shooter. An in-game cinematic unveiled years later in 2004, gave viewers a brief look at potential storylines and environments, as well as the graphics of the game. Digital Extremes specifically stated that the clips were not pre-rendered and were actual in-game footage. The game was shown as the first example of what a seventh-generation game would look like.
The game was originally intended to take place in a science-fiction environment, in outer space, with players taking the role of a character that inhabits a sleek mechanical suit with incredible powers. The game was officially revealed by Digital Extremes' in late 2005, around the time of the original release of the Xbox 360.
In 2006, major overhauls to the game were revealed, showing the main character, and a noticeably less sci-fi setting, although Hayden starts to resemble the originally-planned main character as the infection takes over his body. The developers cited a shift in focus by other gaming companies and publishers as the reason for the change to a more modern setting and reducing its sci-fi elements; adding they wanted to achieve the realism that fans would enjoy. Another reason was that the tech demo was originally built before the team knew the maximum specifications of the Xbox 360.
An interview with GameSpot revealed that the change in setting was intended to make the main character stand out more, as well as making the story more relatable, which they say has been written as a superhero origin story. He added:
At the beginning of the game when we do the prologue he's just kind of this anti-hero kind of guy. And very simply, concretely in the game, there are certain types of barriers that he has to open with contextual stuff. And then when he changes, then he begins tearing those things off and becomes much more brutal. So what we're trying to do is convey that evolution on the inside, but also convey it on the outside so that those game elements that are around him are evolving as he does.
Dark Sector was based on the Sector Engine, later changed to the Evolution Engine, both Digital Extremes' proprietary next-gen game engines. Official statements about this being just a name change or a major shift in their technology were not released to the public yet. Dark Sector's project lead, Steve Sinclair, stated that the engine was written from scratch. The producer of Dark Sector, Dave Kudirka said when they first built the engine, they did not want it to look like the Unreal Engine 3, and they wanted their own perspective engine. When asked about the games' engine being made on Wii or PC, he replied "plausible".
The game went gold on March 7, 2008.
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