Bang to rights: Crackdown 3 officially delayed into 2019

Another year, another delay for super-powered futurecop sandbox Crackdown 3. Following rumours, publishers Microsoft have confirmed that it's now due to arrive in February 2019. Better a good game later than a wonky one now, yeah? Though I wouldn't start getting excited for February just yet, given how many times the game has been delayed. It was originally slated to launch in 2016, then it received an actual release date of November 7, 2017, before being delayed into spring 2018... and yep, on we go.

"Our fans' response to the signature antics and explosive gameplay of Crackdown 3 has been incredible," Microsoft told Kotaku, who first reported on the rumoured delay this week, in a statement. "To ensure we deliver the experience they deserve, Crackdown 3 will be launching in Feb 2019."

They must mean the response from 2015, when it was first announced, before all the delays and lengthy silences meant it slipped out of mind.

Still! I'm up for futurecop shenanigans. Microsoft say they will show more of the game during their E3 blastorama on Sunday (livestreamed from 9pm).

I do wonder what the game has become over all this time. Destructible environments were the game's marquee feature, though that's only in a multiplayer mode, not the regular campaign. Supposedly the destruction is so fancy it relies on cloud servers, which... look, at this point, all we can go is pick over scraps of plans that might've changed years ago. Hopefully on Sunday we'll see what it actually is.

Crackdown 3 is coming to Windows 10 in February 2019 (for real!) as one of those there 'Xbox Play Anywhere' games which gives you a copy for both PC and Xbone if you buy digitally.