Microsoft’s Phil Spencer confirms that the ‘Crackdown’ franchise isn’t dead

By Michael Rougeau Published June 26, 2013

Crackdown — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The Xbox-exclusive Crackdown franchise is not dead, Microsoft Game Studios vice president Phil Spencer revealed to IGN. A symbol from the game appeared briefly in a corner of the Xbox One dashboard that Microsoft showed off during the Xbox One announcement in May 2013, but the franchise was not mentioned officially either there or during E3 in June. Nevertheless, Crackdown 3 could be in development.

“Oh… Crackdown is one of my favorite games, and not just because it’s a Microsoft first-party game,” Spencer said. “I have a lot of love for that franchise. The homage to Crackdown in the [May 21 event] reveal screenshots was… I know there was some, like, ‘Did we accidentally sneak that…?’ It wasn’t accidental. Definitely.”

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“No, I don’t think Crackdown is dead at all,” he continued. “It’s a franchise that’s still close to me. I think there’s a lot of room, especially… For me, the natural progression for a game like Crackdown – and you see this showing up on our stage – is in these living, open worlds that live in the cloud.”

The last Crackdown game was Crackdown 2, released for Xbox 360 in 2010. There’s been no official word of a third game in the series, but that could change at, say, Germany’s Gamescom conference in August.

Michael Rougeau

Former Contributor

Mike Rougeau is a journalist and writer who lives in Los Angeles with his girlfriend and two dogs. He specializes in video…

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