Sega announced a Crazy Taxi reboot in late 2023, alongside the return of other fan-favourite franchises like Golden Axe, Shinobi, and more. At the time, it was described as featuring “innovative and fresh style driving action” with a sense of freedom. Now, Sega is additionally describing the new Crazy Taxi as a major “AAA” game.
The descriptor comes courtesy of Takaya Segawa, Sega Sapporo studio boss, who shared more about the game with Japan Times in a recent interview. As detailed, Sega Sapporo is seemingly working on Crazy Taxi in a support capacity, with two main branches contributing design, programming, and QA expertise.
“We’re responsible for titles such as Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis and Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage! in cooperation with the bases in Tokyo and overseas,” Segawa explained. “We are also participating in the development of Triple-A titles, including Crazy Taxi. At present, we don’t have any titles developed independently by the studio, but we intend to do so in the future.”
Read: Sega reveals fresh details about upcoming game reboots
While Segawa’s comments on Crazy Taxi were only brief, the game’s description as AAA is very intriguing. It’s difficult to strictly define AAA games, but they are typically higher-budget games with larger scopes – big open worlds, and impressive detail.
Crazy Taxi, as a franchise, has never really been considered AAA, largely as the gameplay and scope of each game is more oriented around mini driving puzzles. Most games task you with roaming a basic open world, picking up passengers, and taking them to their next destination, while occasionally performing tricks.
There’s certainly scope to expand this premise with additional story, more complex challenges, and a more fleshed-out world – but the crux of Crazy Taxi‘s appeal is its fun, snappy gameplay and its faster pace. At this stage, it’s unclear how Sega will adapt these challenges in its upcoming reboot, or how it will expand the scope of the game to meet traditional ideas of what a “AAA” game is – but Segawa’s comments paint a very interesting picture about what’s to come.
We expect to hear more about Sega’s Crazy Taxi reboot in the coming year.
