Crackdown 3’s original co-developer and series creator are no longer on the project

[Jtbrig7390]

https://www.polygon.com/e3/2018/6/20...-reagent-games

The state of Reagent Games is in question

When Crackdown 3 was announced in 2014, Microsoft emphasized the return of series creator Dave Jones and his new company Cloudgine, which provided a cloud computing service to help power in-game destruction that would otherwise be impossible on a baseline Xbox One. In an interview with Kotaku around that time, Xbox head Phil Spencer, now executive vice president for gaming at Microsoft, said, “[Jones’] Cloudgine company is doing a lot of the technology behind Crackdown.” But earlier this year, Fortnite creator Epic Games announced it had acquired Cloudgine. Jones left the creative director role at the project’s co-developer Reagent Games, and with it Crackdown 3, to take the role of director of cloud and esport strategies at Epic.

The move raises questions about Microsoft’s plans for the game’s big multiplayer destruction. The initial description of the destruction sounded almost futuristic. “Unlike other games, this wall has compute power and memory on demand,” Jones told GamesTM magazine. “Each single bullet will take away a little bit of the geometry. And everything is physical. In true Crackdown style if I want to be at the top of a building, any building, and create a little sniper nest and shoot my friends from there so they can hardly see me, then that’s pretty exciting. That’s the kind of thing we can do.”

A Gamescom 2015 demo displayed publicly, for the first time, how this would work. While the visual fidelity didn’t compare with modern open-world games, the physics and destruction approached Jones’ bold promise, with the player bringing down skyscrapers piece by piece.

Last week at E3 2018, we spoke with Microsoft Studios head Matt Booty about the status of the destruction mode, which the company hasn’t shown since that 2015 demo. Booty confirmed the destruction-heavy online multiplayer mode remains in development. “It is still part of [Crackdown 3],” said Booty. “We’re not showing a lot of details about that here. We’ll have more to show as the year goes on.”

Booty was less clear on which cloud tools will power that mode. “You know, we’re super lucky as part of Microsoft that we get to work so closely with the Xbox platform team, that the cloud shows up in all of our games in pretty exciting ways. [...] Over time, things will evolve and I can’t really speak to what’s in the game, but it’s — these days with a big game like that, we’re very fortunate to have access to industry-leading cloud technology.”

Asked for clarity on whether or not this meant Cloudgine and Microsoft’s own cloud tools would power the mode, Booty responded, “You know, I’m not going to get into the actual technical breakdown. Let’s just say that we’ve got access to a great infrastructure, and the game’s got some great tech in it, and we’re going to put those two together in the way that makes the most sense.” Booty’s response marks a sharp departure from Spencer’s 2014 claims about the role Cloudgine would play in the final product.

Booty also confirmed that Microsoft is no longer working with Jones or Reagent Games on Crackdown 3. “We’re just working with Sumo [Digital] right now,” said Booty. “That’s our main development partner. And as you know, I’m sure you know, any game has got a number of folks that come in to help us with content and some development, but Sumo’s our main ... Sumo is our main partner on Crackdown.”

The status of Reagent has been a mystery since Epic announced the acquisition of Cloudgine in January. Even though Cloudgine and Reagent are technically separate companies, they seem to have close ties — Jones having co-founded Cloudgine and founded Reagent, and having served as creative director at the latter. Following the Cloudgine acquisition, multiple Reagent employees left the company to join Jones at Epic or take jobs elsewhere, according to their personal LinkedIn pages. On LinkedIn, only three people have Reagent listed as their current employer. Two of those employees have added other jobs since November 2017. The other, when contacted via email, confirmed they no longer work at Reagent, but declined to go into detail regarding the project or the status of the company.

Emails and phone calls to Reagent have gone unanswered. The company’s Twitter account hasn’t posted since January 2017, when it tweeted a job listing for a software engineer. The included link is now dead, as is the rest of the company’s website.

Dave Jones has not commented at publish time, and when contacted about the acquisition earlier this year, Epic Games’s PR team denied requests for an interview with Jones.

In an E3 2018 interview with Giant Bomb, Jeff Gerstmann asked Phil Spencer about Crackdown 3’s original announcement and its emphasis on cloud-based destruction. “I thought we got a little bit into talking about how we’re building the game and not talking about the game,” said Spencer. “So after some of the stuff, I was like, it’s not about the power of the cloud — and everybody can find a video of me saying that, so I understand — but let’s talk ... just talk about being Crackdown.”

“There’s still creative work to do,” Spencer continued. “I’m not saying the game’s perfect by any stretch right now. But we are committed to the game. We definitely had a heart-to-heart as we were rolling into E3: ‘If we’re going to show this and we’re going to say it’s coming, I don’t want to head-fake the community again.’”

Part of that commitment will involve Microsoft’s own cloud tech. Crackdown 3 will still benefit from Microsoft’s Azure cloud server network, the actual computing source that, in recent years, Microsoft reps have said would grant games 13 times the physics computing power of the Xbox One. How Azure will support the destruction mode without the support of Cloudgine should become clear once the game ships in February of next year.

Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if soon after the game drops the studio is shut down at this point. All of that does explain why its been delayed many times and now they lost their head developer/series creator.

Honestly it mite be worth it just to hold off on it until the next gen Xbox. Seems all we keep hearing is bad news about the game.

[Video Games]

Haha, booty. Anyway, all this negative news just means the game is gonna be booty

[zito]

Haha, booty. Anyway, all this negative news just means the game is gonna be booty

doesn't really matter, the desperate people hoping for xboxs come back will keep it alive just like sea of theives, that game had/has almost no content and reviews even stated this but didn't really matter.

[Jtbrig7390]

doesn't really matter, the desperate people hoping for xboxs come back will keep it alive just like sea of theives, that game had/has almost no content and reviews even stated this but didn't really matter.

I never expected crackdown to be great, But at this point I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't even average.

[Zephyr Storm]

They just need to take this poor game out behind the shed and shoot it in the head already.

Either that or save it for the next Xbox console.

[Edge-]

Honestly...at this point I couldn't blame him for leaving. He's been there a while and this development process was likely hell at this point.

What's more interesting to me was the fact that in interview with Microsoft, they seemed very unwilling to talk about the tech behind the game. They'd talk about the physics, but I caught a few interviews where the reps seemed very unwilling to go into any detail related to things like the Azure cloud integration. Given the fact that the Azure servers are basically the main selling point of the game - allowing absurd levels of physics simulations - and that they've been talking about that tech very specifically for years, that makes me legitimately wonder if they simply weren't able to get it working after all this time and either scrapped it or scaled it wwwwwaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy back.

[Jtbrig7390]

Honestly...at this point I couldn't blame him for leaving. He's been there a while and this development process was likely hell at this point.

What's more interesting to me was the fact that in interview with Microsoft, they seemed very unwilling to talk about the tech behind the game. They'd talk about the physics, but I caught a few interviews where the reps seemed very unwilling to go into any detail related to things like the Azure cloud integration. Given the fact that the Azure servers are basically the main selling point of the game - allowing absurd levels of physics simulations - and that they've been talking about that tech very specifically for years, that makes me legitimately wonder if they simply weren't able to get it working after all this time and either scrapped it or scaled it wwwwwaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy back.

Ya I also feel the game has been scaled way back and that's why we haven't heard or seen anything about Multiplayer since like 2015.

Really wouldn't be surprised if its just been turned into Terry Cruz the game honestly.

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They just need to take this poor game out behind the shed and shoot it in the head already.

Either that or save it for the next Xbox console.

Yep just stop talking about it and make it a launch title for the next Xbox.

[ryanmahaffe]

Ya I also feel the game has been scaled way back and that's why we haven't heard or seen anything about Multiplayer since like 2015.

Really wouldn't be surprised if its just been turned into Terry Cruz the game honestly.

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Yep just stop talking about it and make it a launch title for the next Xbox.

Honestly don't think Crackdown will even be a "major title" by the time releases because everyone will be over it.

[Tech614]

Honestly don't think Crackdown will even be a "major title" by the time releases because everyone will be over it.

It was never a major title to begin with, Crackdown was a niche franchise even for the 2 that existed, and it already had Saints Row spam which was basically it's spiritual successor all things considered. 3 was never going to move the needle much even if it was a decent game and came out when it was supposed to.

[Jtbrig7390]

It was never a major title to begin with, Crackdown was a niche franchise even for the 2 that existed.

I guess you could count it as a major release since they are lacking releases to begin with.

But for the most part ya you are correct. The funny thing is Crackdown 1 was nothing but a entry into the Halo 3 beta that turned into a half decent game and Crackdown 3 was ment as a tech demo.

So both was used to just push some kind of showcase of software. Not sure if Crackdown 2 had something tied to it as well since I even forgot that came out until 2014 lol. I heard it wasn't all that great.

[ryanmahaffe]

It was never a major title to begin with, Crackdown was a niche franchise even for the 2 that existed, and it already had Saints Row spam which was basically it's spiritual successor all things considered. 3 was never going to move the needle much even if it was a decent game and came out when it was supposed to.

I thought MS wanted to push it as a major title with last E3 (2017, not 2018) but even the niche audience may fade at the point it releases, we'll see.

[Tech614]

I guess you could count it as a major release since they are lacking releases to begin with.

But for the most part ya you are correct. The funny thing is Crackdown 1 was nothing but a entry into the Halo 3 beta that turned into a half decent game and Crackdown 3 was ment as a tech demo.

So both was used to just push some kind of showcase of software. Not sure if Crackdown 2 had something tied to it as well since I even forgot that came out until 2014 lol. I heard it wasn't all that great.

If Crackdown 2 was released as a $15 DLC to Crackdown 1 nobody would have even questioned it. It was literally a copy pasted game for the most part.

[Jtbrig7390]

If Crackdown 2 was released as a $15 DLC to Crackdown 1 nobody would have even questioned it. It was literally a copy pasted game for the most part.

Wow lol, Kinda explains why Crackdown 3 is taking so long then. They actually have to do some work and make a game...

But really at this point it should be canceled or saved for the next Xbox. I mean fuck they canned Scalebound and it was a more finished game then this.

[dope_danny]

Even the few remaining hardcore 'down with the ship' level xbone fanboys don't think this is coming out at this point. If you can afford to leave and escape dev hell and maybe get a job releasing stuff instead of working on a game that wont why wouldn't you?

[Tech614]

Even the few remaining hardcore 'down with the ship' level xbone fanboys don't think this is coming out at this point. If you can afford to leave and escape dev hell and maybe get a job releasing stuff instead of working on a game that wont why wouldn't you?

I think it will come out on Feb 22nd this time. It's just going to be a bare bones release of whatever they scrapped together that actually works and people are going to be left questioning why the game took 6 years to make.

Doesn't even sound like Phil Spencer gives a shit about this game at this point, and that release date is the ultimate fuck you to that dev studio by MS as even if it was a decent game it would be slaughtered.

[Jtbrig7390]

I think it will come out on Feb 22nd this time. It's just going to be a bare bones release of whatever they scrapped together that actually works and people are going to be left questioning why the game took 6 years to make.

Doesn't even sound like Phil Spencer gives a shit about this game at this point, and that release date is the ultimate fuck you to that dev studio by MS as even if it was a decent game it would be slaughtered.

Yep with some many games releasing at or around that date its DOA from the get go. I don't give a dam if its part of Xbox Games Pass and 2 million people sub that day, It still won't turn a profit at this point.

[CatsNeverDie]

Why so much negativity? The game has been in developmental hell and now its back on track. That should be good news. Crackdown is by no means a system seller, but, it is one fun game that I am excited to play. Deal with it.

[barackopala]

Why so much negativity? The game has been in developmental hell and now its back on track. That should be good news. Crackdown is by no means a system seller, but, it is one fun game that I am excited to play. Deal with it.

When your game is on development hell and the head of the company jumps ship it paints a very Duke Nukem Forever paint to it.

Also i still remember the "Oh this game is optimized for Xbox one X, 30 FPS" thing, 10/10.

[Jtbrig7390]

Why so much negativity? The game has been in developmental hell and now its back on track. That should be good news. Crackdown is by no means a system seller, but, it is one fun game that I am excited to play. Deal with it.

The game isn't even close to being back on track, It just lost its head developer how is that it being back on track. Its also releasing at a really bad time.

[CatsNeverDie]

All this didn't happen yesterday, it must have been going on for a while. That's why we didn't see the game all that time. Now they they are showing it again and announcing the old team is gone and the secondary team is taking the lead. That is going back on track, albeit slow, but forward.