The first new Crazy Taxi was announced last year, and reviving the franchise is part of SEGA’s strategy.

In an interview with The Japan Times, Sapporo Studio President Takaya Segawa said that the new Crazy Taxi will be a AAA title. The franchise debuted on the SEGA Dreamcast in 2000, and after the Japanese company pulled out of the console market (keyword PS2), the game was ported to the PC, Nintendo GameCube, and even made an appearance on the PlayStation 2. Sequels and spin-offs followed, but the 2010s saw only mobile games. The last major installment, Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller, was released in 2002.

We first heard about the Crazy Taxi reboot in 2022, and it became official in December 2023, but we saw a few seconds of gameplay at The Game Awards, and SEGA didn’t provide any further details. All they said was that the following franchises would receive similar treatment: Jet Set Radio, Shinobi, Golden Axe, Streets of Rage. We haven’t heard anything since then, but initially there was enough information that the new Crazy Taxi would be a big-budget reboot, and Tagawa’s comments support this, as Sapporo Studio is “involved in the development of AAA titles like Crazy Taxi.

AAA games tend to have big budgets, so everything tends to be big. That’s why they end up being $60, but nowadays it’s more like $70. Except that it’s also a buzzword, a word that a lot of people say, and nowadays even AAAA is starting to pop up, although only Yves Guillemot, the CEO of Ubisoft, said that about Skull & Bones, so it’s like there’s no serious concept behind either AAA or AAAA these days.

So SEGA is looking with great ambition at Crazy Taxi, which has no release date yet, and they are putting all their money behind it. Meanwhile, they have the Super Game concept, which the Japanese company has not been talking about lately.

Source: PCGamer. The Japan Times