Crackdown 3 officially launches on February 15

Included day one on Xbox Game Pass

It’s been a long and winding road to get to this point. Crackdown 3 was first revealed at E3 in 2014. After not hearing much for a few years, it was eventually set for a November 2017 release, right alongside the Xbox One X. Then it got pushed to spring 2018. Then it got pushed to February 2019. Some people assumed it’d eventually be canceled altogether.

Crackdown 3 now has a firm release date. As part of its X018 broadcast in Mexico City, Xbox revealed that Crackdown 3 launches on February 15, 2019. That’s a week earlier than Anthem and Metro Exodus, which would’ve posed serious threats to Crackdown‘s sales.

Accompanying the announcement, Xbox has also shown off a new multiplayer mode called Wrecking Zone. It’s a five-on-five deathmatch that takes place in its own dedicated arena. Because this is Crackdown, a lot of stuff explodes and crumbles. That’s the whole point, actually. Environmental destruction  The sizzle reel makes it look like it could be a good bit of fun.

For anyone who’s on the fence about Crackdown 3 — and probably rightfully so — remember this is an Xbox first-party game. That means it’s a launch day addition to Xbox Game Pass on both Xbox One and Windows 10 PC. The $10/month subscription is nearly perfect for occasions such as this.