Crackdown 3 is one of the most delayed Microsoft exclusive titles.

The game was announced in 2014, and back then, it was tied to Reagent Games and Cloudgine, with the latter being responsible for the in-game destruction via its cloud technology. Both companies were founded by Dave Jones, the Crackdown series’ creator. However, Cloudgine was acquired by Epic, and even Jones have jumped shit from Reagent to Epic, where he now works as the cloud and eSport specialist.

At E3, Microsoft confirmed to Polygon that Crackdown 3 is currently only developed by Sumo Digital, who is also making Dead Island 2 (and previously, they also made LittleBigPlanet 3). With this change, Crackdown 3‘s one of the unique game elements, the destruction, might be changed, and even in 2015, we have heard that it will only be present in multiplayer. As Microsoft didn’t seem to talk about the involvement of the Cloudgine technology in the final version of the game, Crackdown 3’s situation appears to be somewhat worrying.

Reagent Games, the original developer team, is possibly dead at this point: its Twitter hasn’t updated since January 2017, their website is gone, and only three employees are listed on LinkedIn with two already having another workplace displayed on their profiles. Is this method how the past’s glory disappears?

Crackdown 3, which is set to launch in February of next year on Xbox One and Windows 10, might not have the one element that could have made it noticeable from the rest. Microsoft, who recently gained a few more studios, won’t have enough time to make up for the changes…

Source: VG247, GamesIndustry