Crackdown 3 Finally Has A Release Date

After four years of waiting and multiple delays, gamers finally have a release date for the open-world, physics-based, third-person shooter, Crackdown 3. The game was originally announced way back in 2014 just a year after the Xbox One was revealed, but a number of developmental hang-ups prevented the game from garnering a specific release date... until now.

During this year's X018 conference event that took place in Mexico this past weekend, Microsoft unveiled a number of announcements for various upcoming projects, including the release date for Crackdown 3. Gamespot picked up the news from the event where it was revealed that the game starring Terry Crews will release on February 15th, 2019. So the game is just three months out from release.

The game will release on both PC and Xbox One. Gamers will likely be able to get their hands on the title through the Windows Store through Windows 10, but some gamers are still holding out hope that maybe the game will make its way onto the Steam store. But others are just happy that the long-delayed shooter will finally release and that it's even coming to PC.

The X018 event also played host to the new Wrecking Zone multiplayer mode for Crackdown 3, which featured footage of the mode that sees two teams of 10 duking it out in a fully destructible arena. During the conference, it was revealed that every aspect of the arena can be completely destroyed.

The announcement for the multiplayer component was joined by news that it will have two different modes and will ship with at least two maps.

The Agent customization feature from Crackdown 2 is also returning, so players will be able to utilize the customization options to create the kind of Agent that best suits their playing style and appearance. This is a pretty cool feature for those who want to create an Agent that looks cool shooting guns and tearing through a skyscraper to see it physically collapse in real-time.

And speaking of real-time destruction... the cloud-based physics will be making an appearance in the multiplayer mode. According to the developers the multiplayer destruction will be handled by Microsoft's Azure cloud servers. How well this will all play out in an actual live multiplayer session remains to be seen, but it would be smart of Microsoft to hold a beta test for Crackdown 3 to stress-test the servers ahead of launching the game. The last thing the company needs is for everything to come crashing down (pun intended) on launch day when a bunch of people are attempting to log in and play the game, something that Activision used to suffer from during the launch days of Call of Duty.

There's also going to be a single-player campaign mode that revitalizes the orb-hunting, verticality that was present in the original Crackdown. And speaking of the original, from the X018 all the way up until November 30th, it will be free to download from the Xbox Store or the Windows Store as a backwards compatible title for the Xbox One. The original also features Xbox One X enhancements, with upscaled 4K UHD support.

Crackdown 3 will be available starting February 15th, 2019 on Xbox One, PC, and as a day-one addition to the Xbox Game Pass line-up.