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The upcoming return of Crazy Taxi will be a "AAA" game, Sega has said.

Sega first announced it was making a long-awaited new Crazy Taxi title in December last year, as part of a new wave of entries in many of its classic series.

Now, a Japan Times interview has shed more light on its scope, and revealed it is being worked on in part by Sega's relatively new Sapporo Studio, which was founded in the capital of Japan's Hokkaido prefecture in December 2021.

It sounds like Sapporo Studio is only contributing to the game, however, as the company isn't currently developing any project independently

"The studio has an R&D department that handles designing and programming games and a QA department in charge of quality control," Sega Sapporo studio boss Takaya Segawa said. "Recruitment in R&D is progressing as expected, but for QA we received more applications than anticipated, so a second branch of Sapporo Studio opened in April 2023."

Back in December, Sega said its new Crazy Taxi will offer "innovative and fresh style driving action" that will evoke a "cheerful feeling of freedom" mixed with the "fusion of nature and city".

Wrote Sega: "Peel out the new stage of Crazy City!"

Sega's new Crazy Taxi game "AAA" in scope

The upcoming return of Crazy Taxi will be a "AAA" game, Sega has said.

www.eurogamer.net

 

[Kikorin]

I'm now used to AAAA games like Skull & Bones from Ubisoft, this is like indie size to me.

 

[StereoVsn]

Wait, what, it why? There is no reason for it to be AAA game, nobody asked for that.

If SEGA is doing this it’s just as dumb as trying to make that GaaS game they cancelled even before release.

Like what would be the sales expectations? Unless they went full on GTA or some shit, this makes 0 sense.

 

[cireza]

Waiting to see how they will ruin this through monetization.

 

[nani17]

No interest in triple-A games it's all about Quadruple

 

[IFireflyl]

 

[cash_longfellow]

MTX coming in hot.

 

[Bring Back Scalebound]

This is not getting a positive reaction out of me...
This is like a manager of a punk band going "The Bearded Lolipops will be playing Madison Square Garden next month".

There are games that work and appeal better the more creative and simple they are.

Just... Make a good, replayable, addicting arcadey fun game.

This obsession with the letter "A" and how many times you spell it. I wish it would stop.

 

[RoadHazard]

So Crazy GTA Taxi I guess.

 

[Hudo]

That's crazy.

 

[TidusYuna]

 

[Bond007]

Cant wait for another Crazy Taxi.
Though this worries me. Maybe it comes down to an expensive soundtrack? lol

 

[daclynk]

Give me a great AA game. it that too much to ask

 

[BennyBlanco]

YA YA YA YA

 

[SHA]

Crazy people do have a story, but not sure about taxi drivers, looks shallow to me, unless they put some crazy physics like burnout paradise.

 

[jufonuk]

Sega I love you. We go back to the master system days respect and all but.

At best this game is second party development mid budget for programming.
If you do it yourself. Okay. But not AAA
High for the soundtrack. We better get offspring. Actually maybe the soundtrack is AAA

 

[Acti]

An AAA Crazy Taxi game sounds awkward to me. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[near]

The interview was with Tomoaki Takayanagi the studio director of the newly formed Sega Sapporo studio. He doesn't outright call Crazy Taxi AAA, he said “We are also participating in the development of Triple-A titles, including Crazy Taxi." Which for whatever reason Eurogamer omitted from their article, probably because its semantics are up for debate.

The article then follows on to quote Takayanagi with:

“At present, we don’t have any titles developed independently by the studio, but we intend to do so in the future.”

 

[Fermbiz]

AAA..... The dream is dead....

 

[Toots]

Im a huge segaboy, but even i cannot pretend Sega AAA is the equivalent of any other publisher (except Techland) AA.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

AAA makes no sense for this franchise. I'm worried now.

 

[near]

AAA makes no sense for this franchise. I'm worried now.

They can call it whatever they want. Triple-A, or next gen quadruple super blaster A project. I'm there day one if they're giving new life to these old IPs.

 

[Alexios]

There's 0 new information about its scope or whatever in the quoted text, stfu.

 

[Maddux4164]

They better have The Offspring

No need to bother without that soundtrack

Just like Tony Hawks Pro Skater and its iconic soundtrack.

 

[GymWolf]

Thank god it's not AAAA.

 

[AJUMP23]

I look at crazy taxi I see a Quarter thief, not a AAA game. I don't know how you make a AAA crazy taxi, maybe some one at SEGA does.

 

[PanzerCute]

Maybe wait before we have some information about the game before shitting on it?

Old men yelling at the sky.

 

[Havoc2049]

I just want a fun new Crazy Taxi game.

 

[rofif]

Making crazy taxi game is a bad idea anyway.
Who the heck will buy this ?!

 

[Bloobs]

Take me to AAAvenue!

 

[Elysium44]

The original wasn't even that good 25 years ago, it's extremely shallow and has little replay value. There is a reason the XBLA version is budget priced. It gets old very fast.

 

[Deerock71]

It was nice knowing you, Sega.

 

[Anthony Soprano]

Next-gen MMO with ride sharing gameplay.

Hope Outrun gets good treatment, too.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Instead of racing around picking and dropping off people the game is all about following the story of each passenger as they tell you about the emotional drama in their life.

 

[lughnasadh123]

Can't get much worse than the OGs.

 

[StueyDuck]

Sega's new Crazy Taxi game "AAA" in scope

The upcoming return of Crazy Taxi will be a "AAA" game, Sega has said.

www.eurogamer.net

This.... just seems like it's a flop in the making by what they are saying.

It just needs to be a modest take on a simple formula with a few shake ups.

Sonic mania is a good example to use for it.

 

[Fbh]

That's either a lie for marketing purposes or it's going to loose a lot of money.
There might be a market for some AA $40 crazy taxi, but not for a $70 game with a 100+ million dollar development cost

 

[Bloobs]

Better come straight to GP

 

[Del_X]

Making a AAA game out of this is going to be hard. I’d have been fine with a AA game but I’m still interested in it.

 

[Maddux4164]

That's either a lie for marketing purposes or it's going to loose a lot of money.
There might be a market for some AA $40 crazy taxi, but not for a $70 game with a 100+ million dollar development cost

Yep. As much as I loved it 25 years ago, its not something I “NEED” to ever play again

Give me the old soundtrack. Modernized a bit. Fun new challenges (ala Crazy Taxi 2). AA development cost. $40. I’ll try it out. Maybe

 

[LavitzSlambert]

This is a mistake. Keep it a fun little AA arcade game and launch as a budget title.

 

[nikos]

Can’t wait to see it. Day one no matter what it ends up being.

 

[Nydius]

I just want a fun new Crazy Taxi game.

I'm with you. Just give me a modern interpretation of the original arcade game. Fun, bite size play sessions, ridiculous fun.
Not this "triple A" bullshit.

Better have Bad Religion too.

 

[Kings Field]

Id rather a Fake Taxi game

 

[Little Chicken]

Watch this have some kind of seasonal "taxi pass".

 

[Bloobs]

Id rather a Fake Taxi game

 

[SportsFan581]

Just try not to overspend on it so that the game receives no post release support. I think this one stands a chance of being a really fun multi-player while also being loose and approachable. I hope it turns out good.

 

[Comandr]

Ichiban as a secret character or I riot

 

[Danjin44]

I hope they confident on this game's sale.....even the game end up being good I'm not it has mass appeal that would sale high numbers....

Just throwing money at it, it wouldn't make the game better.

 

[NuclearDiarrhea]

The game is going to be a gritty revenge story where you hunt down the rogue taxi driver who stole your fare.