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 47
It's a shame that.crappy reboot killed the franchise.
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
If we treat that last “Saint’s Row” abomination like we rightfully treat Ghostbusters 2016 (that is, it doesn’t exist) then I’d love a proper Saint’s Row prequel.
Sadly, that garbage game has likely make it impossible for another one to be made anytime soon.
Never played this series but it somehow made me miss the sleeping dogs franchise 😂
The first one was good. Awkward, and rough around the edges.
The second one was great. Had so much fun with it. Played it so many times.
Played 3,4 and the reboot.
Not as good. Missed the point entirely.
I did not even bother to finish the reboot game.
The last franchise I'd cry over. Pure trash, and not the endearing "so bad it's good" kind.
I played the first two, followed by both True Crime games, for their time they hit the mark. I never felt any draw to the newer ones, they seemed too much like GTA Online but offline and with not so very likable characters or any sense of real direction. Maybe that's a harsh comparison. I have no interest in playing another game from the series. Maybe they were a product of their time (for the right reasons, the music especially) Some franchises don't need to be milked, and when they are it needs to be done right or not at all.
Money fight!!!
I wish Embracer as a company was dead, and it's IPs liberated. They are the worst of the worst. 😡
3's my favourite cause I played it first. 2 is also really good, as is Gat. Played the entire reboot in co-op and enjoyed it for what it was, as the gameplay is identical. Didn't deserve all the hate it got.
The last game was so bland, I literally and I kid you not, I fell asleep while doing introductory mission, the part where you finish the shooting and have to arrive to gangs hideout in town. That was enough of it for me.
@EVIL-C except they messed up the most important bit. The characters are all annoying there.
@Weez Isn't the whole series millennial-coded?
@BrokenByTheScream Agreed, but back in the day it was easier to be a clone, today it would be absolutely impossible to compete with GTA VI. Even without knowing the game, I know its going to be absurdly huge in size and graphics.
I think being a parody would be the best way for them to come back, considering the level of production that games demand nowadays.
Maybe with a good, funny and mature story, without been over the top as Saints Row 3 (a game I personally enjoyed back in the day), who knows, maybe they would have a chance for a comeback (if the reboot hadn't ended the franchise). Gat and the others having to deal with a changed world and their own age.
That would be cool.
That's what happens when the gaming community throw huge amounts of hate at a game before it releases. I will never understand why people want old games resold to them over something new.
@RoomWithaMoose They all feature millenial culture. Later games, the reboot most egregiously, feature millenial writing (in the derogatory sense)
I am in minority here, as I did enjoy the Saints Row Reboot
It's rather hilarious to see people say that everything after Saints Row 2 was a failure. According to the stats I can see (from vgchartz), 3 sold more than any other in the series, including more than the first two combined. It was my favorite.
Personally, I didn't play the first one, 2 was good, 3 was the best, 4 was okay but wore out its welcome way too fast, Gat wasn't interesting enough to finish, and the reboot was...sad. I'd love to see them return to the style of Saints Row The Third, or even Saints Row 2, which was a lot less ludicrous than the series became but still didn't take itself entirely seriously all the time.
Notwithstanding the infamous purple baseball-bat-sized dildo, good comedy and satire requires better writing than I expect from the game industry these days. It will likely be a small publisher, willing to risk humor that might get them in trouble from some people - the type of risk big corporations won't take - and it won't necessarily be the same game genre it shows up in. Wherever it comes from, I'll keep an eye out for it.
Whatever Timesplitters and Deus Ex were cancelled, I want everyone at Embracer Group deported to the sun.
Can't say I'm sad. The first two games were good, the third was somewhat okay, but the fourth is what made me fell off the series. Never tried the reboot but from what I hear it sounds like I dodged a bullet.
The last time I played anything that was even remotely connected to Saint's Row was Agents of Mayhem, despite its flaws I had my fair share of fun with it.
@Gbarsotini Yeah, I get that. If it didn’t evolve in some way it would’ve been destroyed by GTA 5. I guess 2 and 3 worked at the time because of how series and gritty GTA 4 was. I personally don’t like The Third at all and I don’t understand the love some people have for it in these comments, but it would have been fine if they went forward with that tone. Would have been much better than the awful Borderlands “lol so random” humour and the Frankenstein’s monster of references and parodies that 4 was. 3 had an identity at least, 4 didn’t.
Saints Row would not fit into today's game industry culture. The reboot of 2022 proved this. If we did get another Saints Row game it'd be as panned as the reboot was. We collectively made the culture we're embroiled in due to our decision-making and the media controlling the narrative.
The only reason GTA 6 is a thing is because of how powerful an entity it is and when you're that powerful you can break the rules. Saints Row is unfortunately lodged in the mid 00s and early 2010s, and we've moved beyond that even if it's sad.
This is a franchise where every game released was worse than the one before it. SR1 and 2 were fun, but after that it got too weird for me and I stopped caring.
I would love a remake of 1 and 2, it won’t happen; but a gal can dream.
@Bamila While the original 1-4 cast is still the best, I didn't dislike the reboot characters.
@JDINCINERATOR There's nothing too outrageous in Saints Row that wouldn't still be popular today. Most just wanted the original cast back. That alone would've made the 2022 game much more palatable. Also keep in mind most of the people who claim to hate the 2022 game also never played it.
@EVIL-C Popularity isn't the issue, it's about how Saints Row fits into our wider culture. Whether it's films, games or TV shows, the risks taken now are far shallower than they ever were in the past few decades. Saints Row shouldn't have been victimized, but it is clear that the changes made in the 2022 game whilst more palatable, were immensely unpopular. You shouldn't dumb down a franchise like Saints Row, even though it's understandable that what was done with the 2022 reboot was the only viable way it could survive given the state of the industry.
I do agree that Saints Row 2022 was overly hated because there were qualities to it. Santa Ileso was lovely, and the game was good if you didn't think about the series' history. However, fans of the franchise wouldn't need to play it to see the franchise's identity had disappeared and judged it accordingly.
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