Original game director is on it.
And original staff helped with Crackdown 2 as part of Ruffian. And Realtime Worlds followed up Crackdown with the amazing All Points Bulletin bomba.
Sometimes you hit on a whole team of people who are the right fit at the right time for the game they made. MS found that with the first Crackdown but sat on their hands until RW was no longer available and had to get Ruffian cobbled together to push out Crackdown 2. Now they're going back to the same formula for Crackdown 3, this time with David Jones as their bit of "cred" stirred in the mix.
Maybe they get it right this time, maybe they don't. It's a coin toss because just like Black Tusk it's a totally new group who've never put anything out.
Again, THIS is why Microsoft needs to stop trying to only dip a toe in the first party water. What did Sony do when Infamous was critically well reviewed and a solid if not amazing seller? They bought Sucker Punch and went full speed ahead with that team. MS is so damn risk adverse when it comes to having a legitimate stable of software studios that when push comes to shove they simply lack the first party muscle Sony and Nintendo bring to the table. That's why we get a conference 3/4ths focused on all the multiplats they've paid for exclusive/timed DLC for.
Other than Fable Legends, Project Spark, and the Halo HD collection not a single game they showed off is being made by an MS owned studio. They've outsourced to Insomniac, Playground Games, Platinum and Capcom to build their "exclusive lineup". When are they going to actually commit to being a part of the industry and stop opening and closing studios like most people change socks?