A revival of Crazy Taxi looks set to be revealed soon, as Sega posts a new teaser video.
Sega announced plans to revive several of its classic gaming franchises back in 2023, but so far only one has come to fruition, in last year’s Shinobi: Art Of Vengeance.
Jet Set Radio, Golden Axe, Streets Of Rage, and Crazy Taxi were the other confirmed revivals at the time. In the latter’s case, there hasn’t been a new game in the series since mobile spin-off Crazy Taxi Tycoon in 2017, while the last new mainline game was 2002’s Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller on the original Xbox.
Now, a new teaser on the Crazy Taxi X account (the account’s first post since 2019) suggests Sega is finally preparing to reveal the upcoming revival.
Te brief clip merely shows the taxi light turning on. We don’t actually see the vehicle properly, but the car roof paint job suggests the classic yellow taxi from previous games may have been given a golden makeover.
There’s little else to go off, but the timing of this teaser suggests some sort of reveal will happen at one of several events next month. Sony’s next State Of Play is taking place June 2, but there’s also Summer Game Fest on June 5, and an Xbox Games Showcase on June 7. And possibly a Nintendo Direct sometime in mid-June.
Expert, exclusive gaming analysis
Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning.
Based on a recruitment video from 2024, Sega’s next Crazy Taxi is a ‘massively multiplayer driving game’ developed by the company’s Sapporo Studio. The video, which is now private, also featured Kenji Kanno, who was the director of the original Crazy Taxi.
It remains to be seen how online multiplayer will integrate with the classic Crazy Taxi formula of transporting passengers to destinations as fast as possible, but it certainly seems like one way to rejuvenate what is a pretty simplistic gameplay loop by 2026’s standards.
Although it’s possible that detail has changed, since the original plan for Crazy Taxi may have been that it was part of Sega’s recently axed ‘super game’ initiative.
It was never clear what made any of the games ‘super’ but the implication was that they were all live service titles of some sort.
The cancellation of the super games doesn’t necessarily mean that reboots of Jet Set Radio, Golden Axe or Streets Of Rage are off the table. Indeed, if they’re now smaller scale projects that may help to get them out sooner.
Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.