Microsoft Says It Didn't Need Crackdown 3 This Year Because It Has So Many Other Games

At E3 2016 last month, Microsoft revealed that Crackdown 3--a no-show at the event--had been delayed to 2017. Now, Xbox marketing manager Aaron Greenberg has shed more light on the subject. Appearing on the TXR Podcast today, Greenberg said Microsoft has so many other great games coming this year (not to mention third-party games) that he's happy to see the game land in 2017 rather than be "crammed" into 2016.

"We don't need the game this year," he said. "We've got ReCore, we've got Forza Horizon 3, we've got Gears of War 4, we've got Dead Rising 4--just on the stuff we're publishing before you get to all the great third-party titles. We have a great partnership with EA around Madden, around Battlefield."

Overall, Greenberg said Microsoft is now being "more thoughtful" about spacing out releases.

"We've been more thoughtful about spreading out our titles over the next year; not cramming them all into [the holiday season]," he said. "Giving people time to play games; to have time and money to be able to go buy the next game. When we look at that [holiday 2016] window of time, we sure didn't need another big AAA game, and so we'd rather give the team time and bring that out sometime next year."

When the delay was announced in June, Reagent Games creative director Dave Jones said the team realized it couldn't deliver on the schedule it had previously set for itself.

"Crackdown 3 is a game built for the future with a multiplayer experience that will redefine what it feels like to play games, and as we continue to work on this, it has become clear that our original timeline of delivering multiplayer to fans this summer, while maintaining the size, scope and quality of the game, would be challenging," Jones said at the time. "Our top priority is to give gamers an experience they have never seen before at a scale never thought possible, and sticking to our original timeline would have compromised that goal."

Crackdown 3's multiplayer component was expected to be out sometime in 2016. We'll now be waiting until 2017 for Crackdown 3, although it's unclear if we'll only be seeing the multiplayer component then or the full game.

It was also confirmed at E3 that Crackdown 3 is coming to both Xbox One and PC. Additionally, a teaser site for the game popped up in June and seemed to suggest a beta was on the way, but there has been no official word on this.