Sega's long-awaited Crazy Taxi revival arrives with a baggage claim tag attached. The publisher confirmed generative AI was used during development of Crazy Taxi: World Tour, hours after unveiling the game at the Xbox Showcase on June 7.
Announced for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, and PC, the game launches in 2027. It marks the first proper entry in the arcade racing franchise since Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller in 2002, following only a 2017 mobile spinoff called Crazy Taxi Tycoon. The Steam page carries a required disclosure: "At SEGA Corporation. We use generative AI as a support tool for developers, aiming to provide better content to our users and enable developers to focus more on creative tasks. We have used such generative AI support tools during development of Crazy Taxi: World Tour."
Sega later clarified to Game Informer that AI was used specifically "to support the creation of background assets," with those assets "subject to review by the development team." The company stressed that "no AI was used in reference to the performers in the game." But the phrasing leaves the door open for AI-generated assets to appear in the final product if the team signs off.
Original creator Kenji Kanno is back on the project, IGN reported. The game features five global cities, online multiplayer, a classic arcade mode, and a story campaign where protagonist Axel chases the masked thieves who stole his taxi. The Offspring soundtrack returns, including "All I Want."
Sega first teased this revival in December 2023, describing it at the time as an open-world, massively multiplayer AAA game. The final product appears more grounded: players handle five cities, perform drifts and jumps to earn cash, and tackle side missions alongside the main campaign.
Vehicle customization, cross-platform multiplayer, and an Arcade Mode recreating the original game's timer-based scoring round out the feature list. The generative AI disclosure has already drawn scrutiny from fans, but Sega's statement suggests the tooling was limited to background asset creation and remains subject to human review. The company positioned it as "an optional support tool for developers" in its statement, arguing it lets teams "focus more on creative tasks and ultimately focus on what matters most: delivering better games to our consumers."
Crazy Taxi: World Tour arrives on Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in 2027.
