
It sounds like the Saints Row series isn't doing too hot right now.
Chris Stockman, design director on the first game in the franchise, certainly seems to think it's the end of the road for the open world action series.
A few months ago, Stockman shared with the Saints Row Reddit that he was asked to propose a pitch for a reboot of the series. Sadly, it seems this hasn't gone anywhere.
X user @paparpg shared an update taken from the Saints Row Discord, and it seems Embracer Group (which holds the rights to the IP) isn't showing any interest.
"I think the franchise is dead, unfortunately," Stockman says. "I get the sense that Embracer has zero ability to do anything with it. I wish things were different."
He goes on to say he tried his best to "offer a path forward", but that the company has "ghosted" him on his pitch, which was for a prequel to the original game.
The Saints Row series has had some big hits and big misses. Many will fondly remember the original trilogy, for example, while the most recent game, simply named Saints Row, failed to resonate.
It certainly does seem like the future of the franchise is uncertain. Would you like to see more Saints Row? Would you be interested in Stockman's prequel idea? Tell us in the comments section below.
[source x.com, via videogameschronicle.com]





Comments 24
It's a shame that.crappy reboot killed the franchise.
That's good news for once
Every single entry was beyond awful
That's what happens when you take a millennial sized dump on a franchise.
They already killed it with Saints Row 4 anyway reboot just put the final nail in the coffin.
They boxed themselves into a corner. It was almost impossible to continue with the series characters after IV and Gat out of Hell, it just kept getting more and more ridiculous until you were a superhero US President fighting aliens in space! ...a long way from the promise of what Saint's Row originally was.
It needed SOME type or reset, they just chose the wrong type of reset. I'd love to see it, or something similar come back more true to original roots... hopefully with less purple dildos or millennial 'humour'!
Pitch a live service version and it will be greenlit
I was playing 2 only the other day or was it 3 I cant remember, and it was funny, i remember thinking why didn't they go with same tone for the new one , saints row always use to release before the next gta and I always use to pick it up to put me on, such a shame.
The first 2 were genuine competitors with GTA back in the day (obviously my personal opinion). I remember the Third having a reveal trailer which certainly looked promising but the release was a complete departure from that.
Saints Row IV was a joke putting the player as POTUS fighting aliens in a simulation.
The Reboot and the PR behind it absolutely buried the franchise which was a damn shame considering what it could and should have been.
Well we had 2 about starting out. One with super heroes, aliens and Hell. I’m not sure where they could go next. Fantasyland?
Okay. Not everything has to go on forever.
They secretly gave the IP to Warhorse along with LotR. So now we get Saints Row, Mafia style. LotR Kingdom Come style. And all problems are solved for Embracer.
(This is not a serious comment)
But Saints Row needed a full overhaul, and one way to do that would have been to give it to people with a completely new perspective on what a crime game should be. Spoiler... it doesn't involve more jump jets and essentially being GTA Online Lite - The Offline Experience... but with hipsters.
They pushed the comedy crime game far enough with 3 and 4, it still had some fun elements, but it was just a comedy game at that point and they could not make another without a serious tone overhaul. The series needed grounding in reality, and instead they just changed the characters to hipsters and only half finished the game, and that was literally good enough for them to release...
It died after saints row 2 tbh
The first two were good started getting silly with the third/forth as for the reboot..what a pile of 💩, I have a ps+ to thank for a copy, only played it for 20 minutes
I am so glad "modern" reboot failed.
They gradually ruined this series. Became a literal (and I mean “literal” literally) parody of itself.
@SJR True honestly
I only played SR3 and really enjoyed at release. SR4 & Gat outta Hell seemed like more of the same great gameplay but with the craziness cranked to 11, they didn't kill the franchise imo.
The reboot however just seems boring and boring to play, and DID kill the franchise.
Maybe a "Saints Row: the Gaas / Gatcha" pitch would entice Embracer Group? A chance for a slice of that GTA Online money, they'd be losing money not to try it /s
Saints Row was a more extreme take of the GTA open world with a parody of the gang culture of the 90s and early 00s. Of course that setting was still present in the early 2000s. A spiritual successor of Saint's Row would need to look at what is currently going on.
A hypothetical spiritual successor could be an extreme take on GTA, where you play a patriotic US fighter, joining a government agency called "Terrestrial Watch And Tactical Squad" huntig illegal extra terrestrials who disguise themselves as left-winged climate protesters. Side quest could include dispersing protests, interrogation of the aliens and beating up people who disagree in online debates with the main character.
Last one was terrible so dont blame them
@Boxmonkey well of course if its a successful live service game they can make more money from it
I never liked Saints Row, but everything I saw from that reboot looked really bad even by Saints Row standards. Hardly surprising. Where do you even go with the series once you introduce aliens and superheroes?
Saints Row was dead after 4 and Gat out of Hell. The remake just dug up the corpse and took a big dump on it.
Funny that Saints 1 and 2 got criticism for being GTA clones, 2 being the best GTA clone of all time, and it was when it tried to be “different” that it failed. 2 was the most personality this series ever had. Wonder what all those people that criticised it think now. You know, sometimes being a “clone” isn’t always a bad thing.
@BrokenByTheScream That might be the most appropriate analogy 😂seriously.
Video games built in positive echo chambers have led to some spectacular disasters
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