In recent years, Sega has scaled back its involvement in the video game world, focusing on key franchises and taking fewer chances with new IPs. With a franchise like Yakuza finding a solid niche in the market, and Sonic continuing to do well, the company has a few breadwinners. The company's slower, conservative approach of late is why it came as a surprise that Sega was going to be publishing a Crazy Taxi-styled game called Taxi Chaos, but it seems this might not be accurate.
Taxi Chaos appears to be trying to recapture the essence of the 2000 Dreamcast game, with cartoonish graphics, and high-flying, reckless driving action. While the original Crazy Taxi holds up well to this day, it has been quite some time since there has been a console release for the franchise, the last being Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller on the original Xbox.
When PR started going out for Taxi Chaos in December, Sega was listed as distributing the game in Asia, making it appear as if there was a connection between Taxi Chaos and the long-dormant Crazy Taxi franchise. In a press release, Sega has made it clear that it is not supporting the title in any way, and "will ceaselessly protect our intellectual property." The statement does go on to say that Sega is always assessing opportunities "to remake/reimagine our universes" perhaps hinting at a possible Crazy Taxi return. It isn't unprecedented for an old franchise to be brought back from Sega's past. The 90s Sega FMV game Ground Zero Texas is being remastered, with a release scheduled for next month.
There were a lot of things the Dreamcast did that were ahead of its time, one of which being that the console was able to bring the arcade experience of a game like Crazy Taxi to the home market. While arcade-style games have fallen off the market for a while now, back in 2000, having an arcade-like experience at home was impressive.
With the huge resurgence that Sonic has experienced recently after years of being one of the internet's favorite memes, the idea that Sega might try to revitalize more franchises does sound appealing. Sonic's return to the spotlight is a bit more predictable than the return of the Crazy Taxi arcade genre, however, as the massive fanbase for Sonic would attest. While Sega might consider reviving something like Crazy Taxi, the company has made it clear that it has no part in the making of Taxi Chaos.
Taxi Chaos is available now for Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: Nintendo Life