Crazy Taxi's First Post in 7 Years Signals Imminent Reveal

Seven years. That's how long the official Crazy Taxi social media accounts sat completely dormant before posting a five-second video on Wednesday showing a taxi sign flickering to life atop what appears to be the series' signature yellow convertible cab. No caption, no context, no sound. Just a light turning on.

The last time the Crazy Taxi accounts posted anything was January 15, 2019. Sega first announced a new entry in the franchise back in December 2023 during The Game Awards, and then proceeded to say almost nothing about it for the next two and a half years. The teaser landing now, with summer showcases from PlayStation, Xbox, and Summer Game Fest all weeks away, makes the timing impossible to ignore. I'd be shocked if we don't see a proper trailer before the end of June.

What exactly this new Crazy Taxi will be is still an open question. The reboot is being developed with help from Sega's Sapporo Studio, established in December 2021. A 2024 recruitment video from the studio featured Kenji Kanno, director of the original game, and showed the team testing a multiplayer version of Crazy Taxi's classic pick-up-and-deliver gameplay. Previous descriptions from Sega have called it a "triple-A" title with "massively multiplayer driving" and a blend of "nature and city." Whether that multiplayer direction survived development is unclear, but the ambition is obviously larger than a simple remaster.

The tease also comes just a week after Sega confirmed it scrapped its long-rumoured "super game" project and would refocus on mainstay IPs and legacy franchise revivals. Crazy Taxi sits alongside Golden Axe, Jet Set Radio, and Streets of Rage in Sega's upcoming plans, all listed with titles and release dates still TBD. Sega already shipped a Shinobi revival last year, so the pipeline is real.

The last entirely new mainline Crazy Taxi game was Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller, released 22 years ago as an Xbox exclusive. If Sega can capture even a fraction of what made the Dreamcast original so addictive, this revival has a real shot at being one of the more exciting announcements of the summer.