Sega envisions new Crazy Taxi reboot as an AAA arcade game
Sega evidently has big plans, or big dreams, for its Crazy Taxi reboot, as the company’s Sapporo studio called it an “AAA” video game. Sega Sapporo studio head Takaya Segawa made the comment during an interview with Japan Times, where he said Crazy Taxi was one of several “AAA titles” the company is developing (thanks, IGN).
“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 said. “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.”
The original Crazy Taxi launched in arcade cabinet form in 1999, and Sega ported it to the ill-fated Dreamcast system in 2000. The premise is that you pick up fares, drive recklessly, and, ideally, get to the correct destination in time before doing it all over again. Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth even included its own version of Crazy Taxi as a mini-game.
And that’s what the original essentially is, a mini-game. How Sega plans on turning it into an AAA game – usually considered expansive projects with large budgets – is a bit of a mystery, and Segawa didn’t elaborate on the studio’s plans. Maybe the visual direction makes use of recent technology, or perhaps it's a Need for Speed-alike or an open-world driving adventure. That's halfway a joke, but who knows - maybe it'll turn out to be true.
Then again, publishers like to throw around terms such as "AAA" or, more recently, "AAAA," a loose designation Ubisoft used to describe Skull and Bones, which doesn't necessarily do anything new or different to warrant such a title.
He also didn’t say if the other AAA games Sega Sapporo is working on are the additional Sega reboots the company announced at The Game Awards 2023, including Golden Axe and Jet Set Radio. This is the first time Sega commented on any of those projects since December 2023.
