Crackdown 3 will not be launching this year, instead having been delayed into 2017. Last week, Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg pointed out that this was partially the result of Microsoft having enough games in its portfolio now that they felt comfortable spacing out their releases- and today, Microsoft Studios general manager Shannon Loftis told Game Informer that another reason contributing to the delay was the studio doubling down to get the campaign done, so that it could launch in the same general timeframe as the much vaunted multiplayer mode.
“Development has been going incredibly well,” Loftis said. “To be honest, because we obviously have this Crackdown online mode and then we also have the traditional Crackdown campaign, which has multiplayer online. But we want to launch our online beta so that it’s not too far in advance of the complete campaign. It’s actually the campaign that we’re doubling down on now.
“We’ve got internal play sessions every week for Crackdown online. We’re starting now to get the campaign in,” she added. “Building these open world games is both challenging and a blast, because you have to build all of the systems that interact together. Before you get to the point where you can actually experience what the game feels like and can start building your missions and telling your stories.”
Loftis promised that the campaign will be worth the wait, and that it will be “most fully featured campaign we’ve ever done”- though of course, something on that scale comes with its own set of development and debugging challenges.
“Depending on what you choose to destroy in the environment, there will be massive, big reactions all over the city,” she said. “Gangs will get together against you. This is the first time we’ve ever had something like that.”
All said and done, I am okay with the delay if that means that we get a better game in the end- and it is good to see Microsoft coming around to this way of thinking, too. Will Crackdown 3 be worth the hype? Who can tell, until the game has released? What we can definitively say is that Microsoft will have made every attempt possible to ensure the developers have all the resources they need for making the game.
Crackdown 3 is due out on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs next year.