So there's been a lot of talk about Crackdown 3 for the Xbox One lately, particularly revolving around the game's recent delay. It turns out there might be a very good explanation for said delay, though: the game isn't ready yet.
This whole hubbub got started earlier this week when Xbox Marketing Manager Aaron Greenberg dropped by the TXR Podcast to talk about all things Xbox One. When asked about the Crackdown 3 delay, Greenberg gave a pretty reasonable answer, stating that the fall calendar was simply too packed.
Gamers frequently complain that the fall window is overcrowded, forcing folks to make choices they wouldn't normally want to make and hold off on playing games they were hoping to dive into day one. Greenberg explains that that had something to do with the delay of Crackdown 3, as the team wanted to give it a bit of breathing room.
According to Greenberg, having first party games like Forza Horizon 3, Gears of War 4, and ReCore on the horizon alongside third party offerings like Battlefield 1 and Madden means that the Xbox One will be plenty busy in the coming months. He stated that, rather than cram Crackdown 3 into the mix, they decided to push the game into 2017. He even goes so far as to state that it's part of a bigger plan to space out launches in the future to give gamers time to play more games and save money for them to boot.
That's all well and good, but then Gameinformer stepped into the conversation with a pretty significant, "hey, waitaminute!"
Apparently the Gameinformer team had a sit-down with Microsoft Studios General Manager Shannon Loftis back at E3, shortly following the announcement that Crackdown 3 was going to be delayed. According to Loftis, Crackdown's delay wasn't so much about giving the game some breathing room as it was about, you know, actually finishing the game.
Shannon Loftis states that the online portion of Crackdown 3 is coming along swimmingly, but that the team really wanted to double down on creating a killer campaign this time around. That kind of effort takes time, and there simply wasn't enough time between now and the fall to get Crackdown 3 ready for players to dive into.
Based on Shannon Loftis' comments, it sounds like Crackdown 3's online mode is just about ready to roll. She makes it sound like the studio could kick off a beta whenever they wanted, but the team would rather wait until the campaign is closer to finished and the game is closer to launch before doing so.
Of course, her reasons aren't that far off from what Greenberg had to say this week. It sounds more like she was shooting from the hip while he was putting the ole PR spin on the matter.
Either way, it sounds like we can expect Crackdown 3 when it's good and ready.
