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Crackdown 3 is to miss its Xbox One X launch window, as Microsoft has confirmed the game’s now been delayed until Spring 2018.
In a statement to Polygon,Microsoft Studios Publishing general managerShannon Loftis said the game needed more time to the finishing touches to its ambitious open world action title.
We’re very excited aboutCrackdown3, and so are many fans, and so it’s a difficult call to move the release date," she said. "However, we want to make sure to deliver the right game, with the right quality, and at the right time. […]Getting the balance right between the three modes is important, and we are going to take the extra development time to ensure that. Gamers can expectCrackdown 3in Spring of 2018.”
"We are taking the extra time to focus on the visual polish so gamers can feel completely immersed in a living world. We want them to really feel the larger-than life enemies as they’re exploring the expansive open world, combatting crime and collecting orbs.”
Crackdown 3 was originally meant to launch alongside Microsoft’s new console, the Xbox One X, on November 7th 2017. Now, however, gamers could be facing a wait of at least four or five months while the team gives it that final polish.
It also weakens the Xbox One X’s Day One line-up, leaving Forza Motorsport 7 (which launches on October 3rd) as the only other major exclusive with support for Microsoft’s super-powered console on Day One. The only other title launching for Xbox One X on November 7th is platformer Super Lucky’s Tale, whose cartoon fox protagonist originally began life on Oculus Rift. Loftis, however, remains confident that the Xbox One X will have "one of thegreatest line-ups of games ever available with a major new console release."
That said, she also told Polygon that the game would have been launching "into an incredibly crowded market," suggesting that even an exclusive title like Crackdown 3 might not have the same draw as it once did, making it vulnerable in the run-up to the Q4 Christmas rush. Whether it will fare any better next spring remains to be seen, of course, but with the Xbox One X having just lost one of its major launch titles, it doesn’t bode well for Microsoft’s new machine.
