Crackdown 2 in the works?

Sources say it's 'likely very early in development'.

Crackdown 2 may be a distinct possibility following the formation of new Scottish games developer Ruffian Games, respected industry website Gamasutra has reported.

According to the site, "unconfirmed sources" have claimed newly-created developer Ruffian Games "is indeed working on a follow-up", but "it's likely to be very early in development".

The report follows the publication of a Flickr picture set which shows "Gaz (Xen Group veteran Gaz Liddon), Billy (Crackdown lead designer Billy Thomson) and Barry viewing units in the Vision building with a view to one of them being our permanent HQ".

Crackdown, published by Microsoft Game Studios as a 2007 Xbox 360 exclusive, was developed by Dundee-based Realtime Worlds.

Speculation that a follow-up to the 1.5 million selling original has been rife for some time. A recent issue of Game Informer magazine claimed of the Crackdown franchise: "The first title was developed by Realtime Worlds, but the company is currently working on APB and not Crackdown 2. The sequel is in production with a different development team."

In a recent Larry 'Major Nelson' Hryb podcast, Microsoft Game Studios boss Phil Spencer added fuel to the fire, saying: "Yes, Crackdown's one of my favorites. I'll leave it at that."

We loved Crackdown, so much so that Tom gave it a 9/10 in his review. It even made it into VideoGamer.com's Top 10 Games of 2007.