Summary
- Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch says that the 2022 reboot was a “disaster”.
- While Deep Silver assured that the series would “live on” despite developer Volition’s closure, Karch’s comments make that look increasingly unlikely.
- “Who’s going to fund them for the next game after that disaster?”, he said, seemingly referencing the aforementioned reboot.
Despite selling nearly two million copies, the Saints Row reboot was deemed such a failure that Embracer completely shut down Volition after 30 years. Publisher Deep Silver claimed that the series, and Red Faction, would “live on” despite the studio’s closure, but that seems increasingly unlikely.
Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch had some choice words for the Saints Row franchise and, more broadly, Volition. “They were so expensive for what they were,” Karch said in an interview with Game File (via GamesRadar). “They didn’t know what they were building. They didn’t have any real direction. It couldn’t last. And so, who’s going to fund them for the next game after that disaster?”
Saints Row Reboot Was A “Disaster”, Says Saber Interactive CEO
The “disaster” in question seems to be the reboot, which was the number one game in the UK boxed charts at launch, selling five times the number of copies that spin-off Agents of Mayhem did, even competing with Sony flagship Horizon Forbidden West.
A former Volition community manager, Tyrin Stevenson, later alleged that it sold 1.7 million copies. While that’s the lowest figure in the series, it far exceeds Agents of Mayhem’s mere 300,000 sales. However, due to its reported $100 million budget, 1.7 million sales simply didn’t cut it.
“It would be nice in an ideal world for everyone to have a job,” Karch said. “But games with nine-figure budgets are making eight figures in revenue and that’s dooming a lot of developers. The days of throwing money at games other than maybe the GTAs of the world is over. It’s over. This business needs to mature. If it doesn’t, the whole business is in trouble. Unfortunately, that means layoffs.”
Saints Row’s fate is now in the hands of Plaion, but with the reboot labelled a “disaster” and the enormous budget of the last game looming overhead, I wouldn’t hold my breath if you were waiting for the series to return.
Saints Row 2022
Open-World
Action-Adventure
Third-Person Shooter
Adventure
- Released
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February 25, 2022
- ESRB
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r
- Developer(s)
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Volition