Sega’s Crazy Taxi reboot is a ‘massively multiplayer driving game’

Sega’s in-development reboot of Crazy Taxi is a “massively multiplayer driving game,” a new recruiting video has revealed.

The new Crazy Taxi is being developed by Sega’s Sapporo Studio, which was established in December 2021 and helps develop various Sega games.

In a new recruiting video released in Japanese, producer Kenji Kanno – who was the director of the original Crazy Taxi game – and other members of the development team share new details about the reboot.

According to the video, the development team is currently testing adapting the classic Crazy Taxi gameplay – in which players transport passengers to destinations as quickly as possible – into a multi-player game world.

The new Crazy Taxi will take place in a large realistic city based on the west coast of the United States, with a “theme park-like” map, according to the video.

The job postings offer more details, describing the new Crazy Taxi as “a major new online title” with an open world and “massively multiplayer driving game” elements. According to the listings, Crazy Taxi is built in Unreal Engine.

Sega announced at The Game Awards last December that it was developing new entries in the Jet Set Radio, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe, Shinobi, and Crazy Taxi series.

The first Crazy Taxi enjoyed some success as an arcade game in 1999, but became much more popular when a home version was released on the Dreamcast in 2000, eventually becoming the third best-selling console game in the United States.

The game has seen several sequels and spin-offs, but the last completely new mainline entry in the series was Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller, which released 22 years ago as an Xbox exclusive.