Microsoft: Crackdown 3 will launch in February 2019, more info to arrive at E3

Microsoft's upcoming open-world shooter Crackdown 3 has been in development for quite a while, and fans have been worried about the state of the game following various rumors and general radio silence from Microsoft.

Today, Microsoft provided us a statement to say that the game is now targeting a February 2019 launch date, and will focus on adding extra polish and features to create the game fans have been hoping for.

"Our fans' response to the signature antics and explosive gameplay of "Crackdown 3" has been incredible. To ensure we deliver the experience they deserve, "Crackdown 3" will be launching in Feb 2019. We look forward to sharing more on "Crackdown 3" this Sunday during the Xbox E3 2018 briefing."

We played Crackdown 3 at E3 2017, and found it to be an incredibly fun, explosive experience even in its earlier incarnation. The delay will not only give Sumo Digital the opportunity to build on what already looked quite promising, but will ensure the game avoids the deluge of massive franchise games hitting this fall. Even heavy hitters like Battlefield and Call of Duty are swerving to avoid the Red Dead Redemption 2 juggernaut.

Our own sources familiar with Crackdown 3's development inform us that the game is coming along nicely, and Microsoft is eager to elevate Crackdown as a franchise to sit alongside the likes of Halo, Gears of War, and Forza. Hopefully, this additional delay will see Crackdown 3 get up to that level.

See at Amazon (opens in new tab)

Jez Corden a Managing Editor at Windows Central, focusing primarily on all things Xbox and gaming. Jez is known for breaking exclusive news and analysis as relates to the Microsoft ecosystem while being powered by caffeine. Follow on Twitter @JezCorden and listen to his Xbox Two podcast, all about, you guessed it, Xbox!

37 Comments

Wow... these delays are getting embarrassing.
Microsoft is spending money to make the game better, better than releasing it half-assed right?
At least in theory. But maybe they just can't match their expectations with all the destruction. Maybe the XboxOne is to weak for what they planed with the game.
I think it's more about optimizing the cloud-based engine so that it's 30 FPS at all times.
The bulk of the computations needed for the destruction isn't done on the Xbox One.
Agree with the philosophy, but delaying this game again at this point is a tough pill to swallow. Originally announced for release in 2016, then moved to fall 2017 to ostensibly be an Xbox One X launch title. Then moved to 2018. And now moved to 2019. Part of the reason I bought an X was my hype for this game, and the thinking that 'ok, this thing was playable in 2017, it has to finally release in 2018.' To go from being a flagship X1X launch title to not releasing until 1.5 years after the second announced release date is extremely disappointing. And to push a release date back three times makes the 'embarrassing' description entirely fair. I enjoyed replaying Crackdown several times on my X with the amazing enhancements provided to it, but was absolutely expecting this game to launch this summer or at worst this fall. I suppose it's on me for trusting that the 2018 release would stick, but I honestly wouldn't have bought an X a few months ago if I'd known this title was delayed again.
In theory, yes. It won't help if, even next year, it releases on the same state of Sea of thieves (lack of content) or State 2 (lack of polish)
How do you know it's not still going to end up half-assed? Heck, how do you know whole-assed even presents a semi-decent product? The game's probably a development mess if it's showing up at E3 for 5 years without a release.
You'd rather play a broken game than a polished one?
You say that like there's any proof we'll get a polished game.
To be fair, there have been games in long development that have turned out alright, Max Payne, Alan Wake, Prey, probably more.
Yeah this isn't a good look. It's better not bomb when it comes out.
There are games that took 10 years...
Ah the classic "But others are also doing it" argument.LOL
Yes, some games also took time, but they were not hyped or mentioned every now and then like what MS is doing with this one..
Not hyped? Last Guar... Final Fan...
Microsoft better have one hell of a surprise lineup for E3, because they’re in one hell of a hole right now, and they dug themselves into it. It’s embarassing. I get that they don’t want another Sea of Thieves or State of Decay, but at some point a game has to be released. They cancelled Scalebound because it supposedly became a black hole for resources, though I suspect that it was really because they didn’t feel they could peddle a service like Game Pass with a more story driven game.. so at what point do they consider Crackdown 3 a black hole for resources and cut their losses? It’s just painful. At this point, I bet that Crackdown 3 becomes an Xbox Two launch title, because I suspect that the real problem is that the ambition level for the project exceeds the power of the current hardware. Ugh. I have the sinking feeling that 2018 is gonna be a repeat of 2017, minus a Cuphead to ease the blow. What’s the over/under on the Switch going on sale this year?
Is Phil Spencer intentionally trying to kill the brand, or is he just the most incompetent boss that could have been appointed to the post? It’s unbelievable, the mismanagement. What manager allows their staff to continually schlep along and delay, delay, and delay a project without heads rolling? Is it like the show The Office in the Xbox offices? Spencer should be out for blood with this announcement if he’s any sort of a real boss. Yet another broken promise on his watch, and he should find that unacceptable.
LOL
I'm to the point where I imagine that they had to pull money from games to develop the XB1X, and now that they've got high-end hardware to push, they're reallocating to funding games. That's the only way I can explain what happened from the days of Xbox One leading PS4 in big exclusives to start the generation. I still can't believe they don't have VR going. The "it needs to be wireless" excuse is stupid. They're falling behind in that space, just like mobile and music and fitness, as they expect the rest of the market to both prop up the platform and then bail on the innovators when Microsoft bothers to show up late to the party. That strategy didn't work for Zune, Surface, or Windows Phone. I'd own an XB1X, FM7, and a WMR headset if they had launched the XB1X with WMR support, specifically for FM7. Instead, I've gotten none of those things because there's no reason. By the time VR is wireless, and worth Phil's time, it will be too late. Either VR will have died because, in part, Microsoft half-assed their support, or Microsoft will be an on-factor because the competition will have too great of a foothold. They should have gone to WMR for the XB1X and let the market decide if the consumers wanted VR on the XB1X yet. I know I did, and it's the only thing I wanted.
VR in gaming is not much relevant yet. Sony is disappointed with PSVR performance.
Can we keep using the "Coming Soon (tm)" tag for the next decade? Right?
Well, it hasn't been Scalebounded yet, but these delays don't exactly instill me with confidence....
I am sick and tired of their lip service. They always respond their game is great and incredible, no problem but actually it is suck or terrible, delayed and cancelled. Pls think first and then talk.
The delay until February makes sense. Would you really want to launch in the fall along side Red Dead Redemption 2, Spider-Man, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Battlefield V, and Call of (no story mode) Duty just to name a few?
And you certainly wouldn't want to launch when, well, you promised it the first few times!
I love Crackdown and was hoping to buy a crackdown3 xbox1x bundle last November. but...
At this point I'm expecting a mess. I bet "polish" means adding a battle Royale mode
I don't care for Battle Royale (never played it, but not a fan of the concept). However, I do think Crackdown's style of play and destruction-based environments (which are already built for large-scale play and modes) would translate really well to Battle Royale.
I'm totally gonna jump into this game.
This is why they shouldn't announce release dates, take the Remedy or CD Projekt route, you get it when it's done. People can't be disappointed if they don't have an expectation.
well hope its worth the wait
It's going to an interesting E3. Crackdown 3 has been at how many E3's now? MS is a write off this gen.
As a casual visitor and an occasional gamer; wasn't this game dus to be released like 3-4 years ago?
Was meant to come out originally in 2016.
Did new hardware events and requirements add to the delays..?
Not a good look. The release date means nothing as they can keep delaying further and further. As they've already done so for years now.
Crackdown is the new Duke nukem
I see a lot of damage control from the usual people. The thing is that it's not about Crackdown 3 the game, it's mostly about MS's strategy and communication.
For me, they communicated very poorly and even misled gamers. Ofc it's better that they provide a complete game and one without bugs. It's really important not to have another SoT or SoD2.
It got to be said that many who say damage control this by using the excuse of a well polished game are also those who damage control for the problems with SoT and SoD2...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is something in common with another MS game Sea of thieves. And we really need to look at this closer.
SoT was supposed to come in 2016.
It was first delayed to "early 2017".
https://gamerant.com/sea-of-thieves-delayed-early-2017-e3/ When Aaron Greenberg was talking of 2016-2017, he said "This is our biggest games lineup we’ve ever had over the next year. As a first-party we will publish and release more games and more exclusives than we ever have." Sure enough it was again delayed to 2018.
http://massivelyop.com/2017/06/12/e3-2017-sea-of-thieves-delays-release-... We all know what happened next. A game that got mixed reviews and many believed it lacked content...
So SoT got multiple delays, but still lacked in content.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyway, the problems here are
1) this is just a blow to MS's FP lineup. When we see what the competition is doing it really looks bad for MS. So when a game like Days Gone gets delayed it's not as much as a problem than if one of those rare major MS game gets delayed.
It's amazing to think that in 2017/2018, MS still depends on a game announced in 2014. What where they doing since Spencer took over? I see many people worship Spencer, but what was Spencer doing so that we get games in 2016-2018? 2) the communication for me has been really bad and misleading. So for years Crackdown used to be in the list of FP games coming soon. Since 2015, whenever I have a discussion with a XB/MS fan about exclusives, Crackdown 3 almost always gets mentioned. Even MS people like Greenberg used to constantly hype Crackdown 3. 2015
https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/microsoft-s-biggest-xbox-one-exclusives...
2016
https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/xbox-one-game-exclusives-confirmed-for-...
2017
https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/xbox-one-console-exclusives-confirmed-f...
2018
https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/xbox-one-console-exclusive-games-of-201...
2019
I can bet that it'll be there in the 2019 list. LOL 3) the timing of the announcements. In this case MS waited as late as possible to announce the delay.
In 2015 Fable legends was suppose to be part of the so-called "greatest lineup in XB history".
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2015/06/15/xbox-halo-5-headlines-greatest-ho... They kept that idea going throughout fall and through black friday period and waited till mid-december to announce the delay.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-12-14-fable-legends-official...
It was cancelled a few months later. They waited after the holiday season to announce that QB was coming to PC and they did the same with Scalebound. It got cancelled officially after the holiday season. Here this was suppose to come in spring 2018. They waited till very late in spring to say it's delayed.
I don't think this is a coincidence. I think this is just to sell the idea of upcoming FP games in order to sell consoles...

Show more comments

Windows Central Newsletter