Crackdown 3 Announced Too Early, Says Microsoft Exec

A mistake Microsoft intends to learn from.

By Alex Osborn

The reveal of Crackdown 3 at E3 2014 may not have been a bit premature, according to Microsoft Studios Publishing general manager Shannon Loftis.

Speaking to Polygon at Gamescom 2017, Loftis admitted the company "probably announced Crackdown too early," noting the game features three different modes, is being developed by three different studios, and was delayed to spring 2018 so the teams could up the game's overall quality.

"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," Loftis explained, noting it "was a super hard decision" that was made all the more difficult in light of the fact that Crackdown 3 had already been announced several years prior.

She acknowledged that Microsoft has previously "made the mistake of announcing some exclusives a little bit too early," which is something they're "trying to learn from," and as such are remaining tight-lipped on other projects they currently have in development.

"We're in this for the long haul, and we wanna make sure that not just in the spring of 2018, but in the summer, and in the fall, and the spring of 2019 that we'll have great, unique, fun experiences for Xbox gamers," she added.

For more on the Microsoft-exclusive, which will run at a 4K resolution on Xbox One X, check out IGN's hands-on impressions from E3 and find out why Crackdown 3 felt great, but wasn't visually impressive.

Alex Osborn is a freelance writer for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @alexcosborn.

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