How is nobody talking about this, from the article?
It was also referenced that this will be the case for Jet Set Radio, which will also receive a remake of its own before securing a live service reboot. In an exclusive reveal, Midori claimed that the reboot will feature ‘shooting elements’ and will be like Fortnite in its design. It’ll reportedly feature an open-world ‘concept’ with a solid focus on exploration as an all-new story unravels.
So Jet Set Radio is going to get the same treatment? Wow. It's hard to imagine my excitement for either game being killed so efficiently and instantly. Those MBAs sure got it all figured out.
Why would they put any kind of combat in Jet Set? The originals didn't have any combat, other than shoving down cops and spraying them with paint. The same thing is true for BRC which came out last August.
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).
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
I wonder if everybody just buy the remake and completely ignore the live service bs, do you think Sega would abandon the idea for their next titles?....
Who am i kidding, Sega never learn from their mistakes.
Well I made a flippant comment about how I thought this would be SEGA being shitty and how people were in denial that SEGA, the publisher that just recently locked new game+ behind a not so microtransaction, would be doing this game dirty.
If these leaks are true, makes me sad but vindicated...
Not really mad about it. It's an older type of game, mechanics are almost obsolete even by arcade standards. This is an easy money maker for Sega and probably won't cost very much for them to implement. I doubt anyone is expecting a legitimately new Crazy Taxi single player game anymore.