Crackdown Demo Delayed, Orders Surge

No demo yet for Microsoft's open-world game, but the interest is there.

Thursday should have been the day Xbox 360 owners got down with the demo for Crackdown, but a few last-minute hiccups means those looking out for a taster will need to sit tight a while longer.

Microsoft said this week that the Crackdown demo originally due on Thursday, 18 January, would now only appear on the Xbox live Marketplace at the end of the month.

"The demo is going through the final steps of the certification process, pushing the scheduled release by several days, though it is still on-track to appear before the end of January," reads a statement from Microsoft. The game itself is set for release on 23 February in Europe.

Crackdown is a cops-'n'-gangsters sandbox style game that's all about freedom. It may sound a bit like Grand Theft Auto and for good reason, as it's a product of ex-Grand Theft Auto designer Dave Jones and his team in Scotland at Realtime Worlds.

The game doesn't have as tight a cooperative mode as, for example, Gears of War, but you can join a game at any time and play in the same world as another player. For the demo, though, people wanting to play together will need to meet up before taking to the streets of Pacific City.

Pre-orders for the game are reportedly on the rise too. GamesIndustry.biz reports that pre-orders have increased 25 per cent since Microsoft revealed that it would be packing in invitations to the Halo 3 beta earlier this month.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo