Sega making ‘big-budget’ Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio reboots

Sega is reportedly developing “big-budget” reboots of its Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio franchises, according to Bloomberg, as the company seeks to create a global hit. The projects are reportedly components of Sega’s so-called Super Game Initiative, a plan that parent company Sega Sammy unveiled in 2021.

Sega’s Super Game Initiative is the company’s strategy to develop “new and innovative titles” with a focus on global reach, online interactivity, community building, and IP utilization, Sega said in November, when it announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft to use its Azure cloud platform. In May 2021, Sega said it planned to exploit its suite of dormant IP for remakes, remasters, and reboots, naming games like Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio as candidates for revitalization. Other potential games on the list of dormant franchises include Space Channel 5, Rez, Panzer Dragoon, Nights, Shinobi, Virtua Fighter, and Altered Beast.

Bloomberg reports that Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio are up first; a new Crazy Taxi is already a year into development, with plans to release it in the next two to three years.

Sega has remastered, remade, and reimagined its Dreamcast-era properties over the years. Both Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio were included in Sega’s 2011 Dreamcast Collection, and Sega has attempted multiple Crazy Taxi spinoffs for mobile devices, including 2017’s Crazy Taxi Tycoon (née Crazy Taxi Gazillionaire), a business management sim/idle game. But Sega has also outsourced many of its IP revivals, including Streets of Rage 4, Panzer Dragoon: Remake, Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX, and The House of the Dead: Remake, to independent developers.

Beyond games, Sega is working to turn its stable of game franchises into live-action movies. Following the success of its Sonic the Hedgehog film franchise, Sega hopes to adapt IP like Yakuza and Streets of Rage for the big screen.