Speaking to IGN at E3, Microsoft Game Studios vice president Phil Spencer addressed the absence of cult-favorite franchise Crackdown

Hmm...

“ The natural progression for a game like Crackdown is in these living, open worlds that live in the cloud.

“Oh… Crackdown is one of my favorite games, and not just because it’s a Microsoft first-party game,” he told IGN. “I have a lot of love for that franchise. The homage to Crackdown in the [May 21 event] reveal screenshots was… I know there was some, like, ‘Did we accidentally sneak that…?’ It wasn’t accidental. Definitely.”When pressed if the nod was just an Easter egg, Spencer did nothing to extinguish fan hope that the series may return on Xbox One. “No, I don’t think Crackdown is dead at all,” he said. “It’s a franchise that’s still close to me. I think there’s a lot of room, especially… For me, the natural progression for a game like Crackdown – and you see this showing up on our stage – is in these living, open worlds that live in the cloud.”We expect to get a chance to see and play Kinect Sports Rivals – and thus get our real first taste of how the new Kinect sensor handles games – no later than the Gamescom conference in August.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews and Xbox Guru-in-Chief. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan , on IGN , catch him on Podcast Unlocked , and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.