It’s been recent news that Crackdown 3 has been pushed past a 2016 release, and that’s put a few fans worried about the series’s next sequel. However, we’ve heard from Microsoft about why the date’s been pushed back.
Microsoft Studios general manager Shannon Loftis recently spoke to Game Informer about the delay.
“Development has been going incredibly well. I’ve actually been playing a ton of it,” she stated. “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. 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.
“It’s just starting to come online,” she added. “We have lots of time to put together our missions. I don’t like letting gamers down and asking them to wait, but I’m also kind of proud of giving developers the time they need.”
Crackdown 3 is set for a 2017 release date, although no specific day has been pinned down yet. As well, Microsoft confirmed that Crackdown 3 will support Xbox Play Anywhere, a new program that allows for cross-play, cross-buy, and cross-save functionality between the Xbox One and PC’s that run Windows 10.