You Can Blow Up All Of The Geometry In CRACKDOWN 3 As Delays Allowed Microsoft Create A Polished Experience

The consistently delayed third entry in the explosive Crackdown series was announced at E3 almost four years ago and Microsoft recently officially revealed that the title will release on February 15, 2019 exclusively for Xbox One and Windows 10. Crackdown 3 will be also available on the Xbox Game Pass, a Microsoft subscription service that allows Xbox One owners play selected titles on the day of release.

In a recent interview with Windows Central, Microsoft Studios' Creative Director Joseph Staten and Head of Production Jorg Neumann discussed the past and future of the upcoming extravaganza. According to Staten, the series of delays helped Cloudgine, the company that specializes on cloud computing to Unreal Engine, Ruffian Games, creators of Crackdown 2 that are working on multiplayer, and finally Sumo Digital developing the single-player campaign, to create a coherent experience.

"[We] knew going in when we started Crackdown 3 that this technological heavy lift — Azure powered, multiplayer fully destructible environments — was going to take a lot of investment, a lot of time to get right. To a large extent, the project schedule has largely been driven by that technology investment," Staten explained. "We really have landed this fully destructible Azure-powered experience. It's really unlike any game that we've tried to design before, where you can blow up all of the geometry."

While Crackdown 3 was originally billed as a four-player co-op, that has been limited to two-player in recent times. "[It's] friend-invite only. Crackdown 3 has very little structure, that's always been the appeal of the game. It's a big open world, with a huge set of guns, you can do things at your own pace," Neumann said "There's no prescribed way to play through the bosses, for example. If you have too many players with completely different stuff on their mind, we found that they tend to go off in different directions and never see each other. We felt the best experience in Crackdown 3 was to play with a friend, making plans of attack, [healing] each other, blowing shit up together."

When it comes to a potential Crackdown 3 sequel, Microsoft is not thinking about it at the moments. Staten explained that, in his opinion, Crackdown is not a flagship Microsoft series (like Forza, Halo, and Gears of War) yet, but it has a lot of potential to become one one day. The creative director deeply hopes that players will fall in love with Crackdown 3, as the game finally releases in just three months.

Enter Crackdown 3’s sandbox of mayhem and destruction and become a Super-Powered Agent dedicated to Justice by any means necessary. Explore the heights of a dangerous futuristic city, cut through gang-infested streets in a transforming vehicle, and wield amazing abilities to dismantle a ruthless criminal empire. Developed by original creator Dave Jones, Crackdown 3 will deliver cooperative chaos and an all-new multiplayer mode where destruction is your ultimate weapon against friends and rivals online. Whether you’re playing the all-new Campaign or enjoying a truly revolutionary competitive experience, you’ll never look at open-world gaming the same way again.