The design director of the unique Saints Row says he fears the collection is over, claiming his pitch for a possible prequel is being ignored by the IP’s proprietor Embracer Group.
Final November, Chris Stockman – who was design director on the primary Saints Row earlier than leaving Volition, and now works for VR studio Bit Planet Video games – posted on the Saints Row Reddit web page that he was planning to suggest a prequel to the unique sport.
“Guys and gals, I’ve hopeful information,” Stockman wrote on the time. “I’ve been requested to create a pitch for a Saints Row reboot. I can’t say something greater than that however my goals for this sport simply grew to become a bit of extra than simply goals.”
Nonetheless, as noticed by X consumer @paparpg, Stockman not too long ago revealed on Discord that Embracer wasn’t listening to his proposal and that he believed the collection could also be carried out.
Replying to a different consumer who claimed the final “canon” Saints Row was launched a decade in the past, Stockman replied: “Yeah, and truthfully, I feel the franchise is lifeless, sadly.
“I get the sense that Embracer has zero potential to do something with it. I want issues had been completely different. I attempted my finest to supply a path ahead however they’ve ghosted me.”
The unique Saints Row, which was an Xbox 360 unique launched in 2006, was usually well-received as a stable various to the Grand Theft Auto collection, which was nonetheless two years away from coming into the HD period with GTA 4.
Subsequent sequels grew to become progressively extra comedic, till collection developer Volition determined to reboot the sport in 2022. The reboot acquired combined opinions at launch, with VGC’s Saints Row assessment labelling the sport a “buggy, boring mess”. It presently has scores of 61-65 on the assessment aggregation website Metacritic.
In an interview final October, Stockman shared his concepts for a possible Saints Row prequel set within the ’70s, whereas criticising the 2022 reboot, which he referred to as “a horrible thought”.
“What’s it attempting to be?” he requested. “You’re rebooting it, however why are you rebooting it? There’s a whole lot of characters within the collection that folks love. It wasn’t Saints Row in any respect. Simply name it one thing else at that time. There’s a stage of expectations for a Saints Row sport, and so they missed the mark on all of them.
“What I might have carried out was to take the franchise again to the ’70s and do a interval piece, a prequel of how the gangs from the primary one began. You’re operating round with a crew of teenagers that ended up as the primary characters for the primary sport. You may actually go all in on the ’70s theme with huge Afros, bell-bottoms, and the music of that entire interval.”
