Bad news agents. Your internet service provider might be letting you down once again. Crackdown 3 developer Reagent Games has reported difficulties it is dealing with from internet providers when attempting to realize it’s vision for destructibility.
The much anticipated sequel gives
players the ability to destroy massive buildings and entire city
blocks. This requires more processing power than the Xbox One can handle, so the game offloads some of the load to Microsoft’s cloud servers. Microsoft Studios global publishing general manager Shannon Loftis explained that this might not ensure players get the right game data. “We can ensure that what leaves the data center is in a particular state, but not what happens between then and when it gets to people’s houses,” said Loftis.
The massive destructibility will only be available in multiplayer mode. Reagent’s Dave Jones explained, “You have to be online for multiplayer, and at that point we can connect to the cloud and really expand the experience. You can’t [destroy buildings in single-player], and in some respects that goes against the grain of what Crackdown is. You’re meant to be saving the city, so we really wanted to create a new multiplayer experience that bent that.” It was noted that the game is designed so that the experience will not be negatively impacted. “There is code on the client side that ensures that all the instances stay synced and that you’re seeing what I see and that it all runs smoothly,” Loftis said.
As far as Crackdown 3’s release date, it’s been narrowed down to Summer 2016, but it seems this is the release date for the multiplayer. It’s unclear how Microsoft is splitting up the game’s release at this point.