Microsoft E3 2014 curse claims another victim

Crackdown 3, once expected in 2016, and more recently expected on November 7 in lockstep with the new Xbox One X console, is now coming in “spring 2018.”

Microsoft originally announced a newCrackdownat E3 2014. Microsoft Studios Publishing general manager Shannon Loftis, speaking to Polygon, says it’s a decisionthe company regrets. “I think we probably announcedCrackdowntoo early.” The game is being developed by three different studios, one for each game mode, and the early announcement made subsequent delays — caused because “we definitely underestimated the challenge of making sure the quality bar of all three of those modes was high and it delivers on what we need to deliver on” — more difficult.

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But what else was Microsoft to do at E3 2014? Its showing was buoyed byThe Master Chief Collection(an HD collectionplagued with issues),Phantom Dust(now cancelled),Scalebound(now cancelled) andCrackdown 3(not out yet).Yikes.

Meanwhile, whenCrackdown 3was delayed, Loftis called it “hugely ambitious,” thus the need for more time, which doesn’t track with Brett’s hands-on time with the game at E3, where he said it was “stuck in 2007.”

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