This year hasn’t been especially kind to the Crackdown community. Sure, we learned Terry Crews will be part of the Crackdown 3 cast during Microsoft’s E3 2017 presser. But this was also the year we learned the game’s ultra-destructible environments won’t be nearly as destructible during the campaign. And now Microsoft says Crackdown 3 is going to miss another launch window.
This is the second time Microsoft and its development partners, Cloudgine, Reagent Games and Sumo Digital, have been forced to delay the project. Announced in 2014, Crackdown 3 was originally slated for a late 2016 release before the Xbox One manufacturer realized it would need more time to work on the project. And it seems their ambitions have forced another delay. Microsoft Studios General Manager Shannon Loftis defended the decision in an interview with Polygon, acknowledging the studio’s own disappointment with the shifting release date
“We want to make sure to deliver the right game, with the right quality, and at the right time,” Loftis told Polygon. “ Crackdown 3 is a hugely ambitious game and we want to ensure we deliver the right experiences all the way through every part of the game, whether that’s campaign, co-op multiplayer or our competitive multiplayer mode, Wrecking Zone. Getting the balance right between the three modes is important, and we are going to take the extra development time to ensure that.”
Loftis confirmed that a significant portion of the extra development time will be spent tweaking the game’s visuals. Not everyone was impressed with the way Crackdown 3 looked when they got hands-on time with the project at E3 back in June. The extra time also gives the Crackdown 3 devs more time to balance multiplayer loadouts, improve the singleplayer campaign and improve the game’s cloud-computing features. Admittedly, that knowledge won’t make the extra four to six months of waiting pass any quicker. But we’re trying to focus on the positives here.
For an early look at Crackdown 3, take a few minutes to watch the 4K trailer that debuted back at E3. Then head down to the comments and let us know how you feel about the decision to push the Crackdown 3 release date to the first half of next year.
Crackdown 3 is in development for Xbox One and PC. The game is slated for Spring 2018.
Be sure to check back with Player.One and follow Scott on Twitter for more Crackdown 3 news in 2017 and however long Crackdown 3 continues to receive support after launch.
