‘Crackdown 3’ Delay To 2018 Thins Fall Xbox One Exclusives, PUBG And Others Will Need To Pick Up The Slack

Crackdown 3‘s planned launch alongside the Xbox One X this November has been scratched by Microsoft Studios. The company confirmed Wednesday the open-world action title has been pushed to spring 2018. A move that further thins the Xbox exclusive lineup for the fall unless certain other pieces like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds falls into place.

Microsoft Studios Publishing general manager let the news slip in a statement to Polygon. The development teams at Reagent Games, Sumo Digital, and Cloudgine plan to use the delay to spring 2018 to polish the game. This includes the visuals, which were criticized by many outlets following the debut of the campaign footage at E3 this past June.

“We’re very excited about Crackdown 3, and so are many fans, and so it’s a difficult call to move the release date,” Loftis told the site. “However, we want to make sure to deliver the right game, with the right quality, and at the right time.

“Crackdown 3 is a hugely ambitious game and we want to ensure we deliver the right experiences all the way through every part of the game, whether that’s campaign, co-op multiplayer or our competitive multiplayer mode, Wrecking Zone. 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 expect Crackdown 3 in Spring of 2018.”

This comment was echoed by Head of Xbox Phil Spencer on Twitter. The Xbox boss stated, “We are very committed to shipping Crackdown 3 to the level of quality the fans deserve.”

The delay puts the Xbox One into a similar situation that Sony experienced with the PlayStation 4 in 2015 following the delay of Uncharted 4. With the cancellation ofScalebound plus Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2 pushed to next year, this leaves Forza Horizon 7 as the big AAA exclusive for the second half of 2017. It will be accompanied by smaller, but still interesting, exclusives like Cuphead, Super Lucky’s Tale, and possibly Ashen.

The one title that may make up for the lack of Crackdown 3 is PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG). The battle royale shooter has been tearing up the PC gaming community since it was released to Steam Early Access in March with over 7 million copies sold. It is expected to be a timed console exclusive that will hit the Xbox One first and stands to be a hit there as well.

The main question is if PUBG will release to the Xbox One in 2017. Developer Bluehole, Inc recently delayed the official PC release to sometime during the fourth quarter of this year. It unknown if the delay will push the console version into next year or not.

While Crackdown 3 would have benefited from the launching alongside the Xbox One X in November, the delay is by no means a killer for the more powerful console. The discussion around 4K gaming has primarily been around titles like Forza Motorsport 7, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Star Wars: Battlefront 2, and others.

The lack of buzz around Crackdown 3 is mostly due to a lack of the game being seen. E3 was the first time the game was demonstrated since the 2017 Gamescom convention. The fact the multiplayer portion of the game that features a completely destructible environment did not help. Perhaps the delay to 2018 will allow Microsoft Studios and the development teams more opportunities to build hype around the title beyond Terry Crews.

[Featured Image by Microsoft Studios]