To nobody’s surprise, Sega has enshittified its beloved Crazy Taxi IP.
And then when these games continue to flop critically, and never reach the player count they forecast, it’s the developers’ fault and layoffs abound.
My hope, though I’m keeping my expectations low, is that since these supposed live-service games will be supposedly releasing alongside remakes of the original games the IP is based on, that if the remakes sell significantly better than the live service games it might hopefully inform better decision-making around them.
While they haven’t been controversy-free in terms of their monetization practices, Sega has released a slew of back-to-back AAA games: Persona 3 Reload, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and Sonic Frontiers, that have generally been complete, single-purchase packages (with a few questionable omissions from base game moved to DLC that I’d consider “regular bad”, but not anywhere near the level of egregious monetization seen in most live-service games).
Only the fact that Infinite Wealth’s NG+ is locked behind a $15 paywall.
“Ohh boy another live service game” - shareholders apparently
This is what happens when you wish for the resurrection of a beloved IP. Another finger on the monkey’s paw curls. The idea of a Crazy Taxi live service game is weird enough, but it’s just bizarre that they are using Fortnight as a major inspiration for the Jet Set Radio reboot. I guess at the very least we are getting proper remakes of these games alongside the live service reboots. It will be interesting to see how the games do head to head, especially with the difficulties live service games have been having lately.
twisted metal would make a perfect battle royale game
also carmageddon
See, that’s a great idea.
We can’t allow those.
I mean, they were obviously going to add more modes if they want the game to be AAA. The Original games were basically a 5 minute arcade loop…
5 minute arcade loop that me and my brother replayed for like a 10,000 times.
And just like that, my interest in either Crazy Taxi or Jet Set Radio evaporates into the ether.
Is it April 1st already?
I wish, Bonkers. I really do. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻)
I wasn’t expecting much but this news is disappointing. Hopefully the remake and live-service game are completely separate from one another.
Next up: empty Sonic levels until you buy packs of rings.
Stick with me here… 100 sonics airdrop on to a giant map…
We already had Sonic with guns and Sonic kissing a human princess. Nothing will ruin my affection for the blue hedgehog.
What about a sonic game where your have to unlock his spincharge?
Could be like Mario 35, which was pretty fun
This is why Frontiers map is so empty
SONIC 100
I fear for Jet Set Radio. Edit: nevermind i guess they are trying to ruin that too
At least we got Bomb Rush Cyberfunk
First Shenmue got all messed up and now this. Nothing is sacred lol. I hope they reassess their head in assery
“Should we throw all the shitty trappings of modern gaming into this beloved and dormant IP? Let me see what my magic 8 ball radio says.”
Radio: Ya Ya Ya Ya Ya!
I’m somewhere between sad for the people whose talents are being directed to this, and feeling so profoundly unexcited about this game that I keep having to re-read the post title to remind myself what it was about.
(This was not a complaint on the post btw - upvoted)
100 player survival mode could be fun. It worked for Tetris and Mario, and I can imagine something similar would work for Crazy Taxi.
As long they manage to maintain a steady player base and stay away from predatory monetary practices - which probably is just wishful thinking.
My guess is after the first year they lower it to 50 since there won’t be that many people playing it. Fall guys did it after 3 years, it was sad to lose the 60 person levels which are now 40 if your lucky.
I feel like fall guys developers are doing everything in their power to have to further reduce this to 30 lol
I feel that was mostly so the Switch could run it without having an electronic stroke.
It ran like shit enough on the PS4…
To be fair, to me this does not seem that bad an idea. Live service games share a lot of DNA with arcades. That’s easiest to see in mobile, where people play many short matches rather than long campaigns.
…frankly that also includes predatory monetization. People forget that games used to be so hard way back when so that they would gobble up kids’ quarters.
For better or worse, live service Crazy Taxi seems to me like a faithful conversion of the original idea to the current day gaming landscape.
BOOOO
Meh who needs this just go play Motor Town, stick a v12 in a tiny shit stick little car that absolutely can’t handle all the torque and do urgent taxi jobs. Yeah it is a realistic racing game with a good physics engine and well modeled tire drifting mechanics not an arcade game but when you are struggling to keep your taxi pointed straight because you are still burning out at 80mph in 5th gear while your taxi customers scream at you to slow down just try to tell me you are playing “Normal” Taxi.
Doesn’t matter. Mile High Taxi already superseded Crazy Taxi. Just play that.
Flying taxi game? I saw some pretty mixed feedback on that which turned me off from checking it out
It’s average. Which is about the same I feel for the original Crazy Taxi.
Lol, I mean fair
