Crazy Taxi

Crazy Taxi is a SEGA franchise born in arcades in 1999, developed by Hitmaker (SEGA's in-house studio). The concept is immediate: play a completely unhinged taxi driver, speed through an open city and drop off passengers as fast as possible to rake in maximum tips. Simple. Effective. And immediately addictive.

The first installment is a hit in arcades on Naomi hardware, then explodes on Dreamcast in 2000 - one of the console's killer apps. The punk rock soundtrack by The Offspring and Bad Religion becomes inseparable from the series' identity. Crazy Taxi 2 releases in 2001 on Dreamcast with jumps and a new city inspired by New York. Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller arrives in 2002 on Xbox and arcade, adding a Las Vegas-style nighttime setting.

After a long dry spell marked by mobile releases and HD ports on PS3/360/PC (2011-2012), the franchise nearly disappears from the radar. Attempts like Crazy Taxi: City Rush on mobile in 2014 fail to recapture the magic of the original.

The franchise comes back to life with Crazy Taxi: World Tour, announced for 2027 on PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2 and PC. The title embraces online multiplayer and a "world tour" structure with multiple maps - a deliberate shift toward games-as-a-service, while still claiming the frenetic DNA of its origins.