New Crazy Taxi title will be an open-world, massively multiplayer AAA game, according to Sega
Sega recently announced that they are recruiting development staff for a new Crazy Taxi title. The posting indicates that the sequel will be a large-scale, open-world, massively multiplayer driving game. A video interview with the game’s development team reveals further details.
Back in December last year, Sega announced that they were working on new titles for five of their IPs, including the Crazy Taxi franchise. The Crazy Taxi series has the player assume the role of a taxi driver, taking passengers to their destinations in the fastest time possible and earning tips by performing dangerous stunts. The high-adrenaline series will be getting its first mainline entry since Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller from 2002.
In the developer interview published July 1, series producer Kenji Kanno remarks that the upcoming game is being developed as a “completely new” Crazy Taxi that can be played by many players at once. The team is currently resolving the specifics and testing the game’s compatibility with multiplayer play. Their goal is to maintain the Crazy Taxi style while implementing new mechanics. Apart from a realistic city environment, the developers mention working on a theme park-like map and motifs inspired by the US West Coast.
The recruitment page for the new Crazy Taxi offers a number of positions, ranging from game designer to level designer, effects designer, character modeler, concept artist, and more. The posting also reveals that Sega is aiming for a large-scale global hit with the game, which will be open-world, massively multiplayer and run in Unreal Engine.
A previously released teaser video had hinted at a potential multiplayer mode, showing multiple taxis driving in the game field, and this has now been confirmed. Incidentally, the teaser also showed a player driving a police car, which means that we can probably expect a variety of modes.
Sega Sapporo Studio, established in 2021, is participating in the development of the new Crazy Taxi title, and the studio’s president, Takaya Segawa, has previously described it as an AAA title.
The upcoming Crazy Taxi sequel is currently in development. The release date and compatible platforms have yet to be announced.
Crazy Taxi is one of those games that I think would work in this context and it would be interesting to see a Massive Multiplayer mechanic along with Jet Set Radio. But I do think that SEGA is treading a thin line here because it’s obvious they are thinking about GAAS as a monetization method, which Crazy Taxi could work with GAAS because of it’s Arcade Origin and it’s endless replay value. But Jet Set Radio seems so much like a Single Player game that would obviously benefit with multiplayer mechanics similar to Monster Hunter or perhaps Resident Evil Outbreak but with a lot of players, I just can not see it working as GAAS as it is just too different overall of a game to retrofit that aspect.