Back in 2014, Microsoft took to E3 to announce an upcoming open-world action-adventure video game for Xbox One and PC, titled "Crackdown 3," a move that today, the studio regrets. Originally due for a November 7, 2017 release, the game has now been delayed for Spring 2018. The studio, which made the announcement last week, admitted that while they were "very excited" to get the game out the door, they were also concerned about delivering the "right quality" that players expect from such a tech giant. As gamescom week is coming to a close, Polygon spoke with Microsoft to talk more about their decision to Delay the game to next year.
Microsoft Studios Publishing general manager Shannon Loftis shared some thoughts with Polygon on what really happened in terms of delaying the game to a 2018 release.
Microsoft announced the game too early
Microsoft's Shannon Loftis admitted that there was fault on the publishing company's end. She admitted that Microsoft announced the game "too early" in 2014. She added that because of the intricacies of the game, the company had to deal with three different studios for the game. "Crackdown 3" has three modes, with three respective studios working on the game—Reagent Games, Sumo Digital, and Cloudgine. Because of its massive scale, the studios and Microsoft needed more time to ensure the quality of the game.
Loftis admitted that they "underestimated the challenge" of ensuring top-notch quality for all three modes ahead of release.
Announcement made it harder to delay the game
According to Microsoft's Shannon Loftis, delaying "Crackdown 3" was a difficult decision to make because they had already announced the game back in 2014. She admitted that "in the past we have made the Mistake of announcing some exclusives a little bit too early" and that they're trying their best to learn from such mistakes.
Nonetheless, she assured fans and players that the studio is committed to delivering a quality game "for the long haul" and even hinted at the future of Xbox games, saying that they are committed to releasing high quality games in the future as well.
Game plagued by delays
"Crackdown 3" was originally set for a 2016 release date, but was delayed to this year.
It was only last week that Microsoft announced that they decided to once again delay the game to next year. Gamespot reported that creative director Dave Jones promised that the game's multiplayer experience "will redefine what it feels like to play games" when it arrives in Spring 2018.
