Sounds like good news.
I was very late to the party with Crackdown (bought it a few years after it came out) but when I played it I thought it was a great game, the mission types seemed the same but it was great fun collecting those orbs while running and jumping round the city.
I wasn't a huge fan of Crackdown 2 as they seemed to just replace the mission type of the original with setting off beacons and I really didn't like the mutant/zombie enemies.
Hopefully with time and a good developer behind it (not to say the previous developers were bad) I think it could be really good. If they take the open world, co-op and collecting aspect of the first and add in varied mission types, a bit of story, more crazy physics weapons and make it look next gen then I think it will be something really good.