Embracer Group, the company that ultimately funded last year's Saints Row reboot, has had to re-evaluate its approach to greenlighting new games. In the firm's latest financial report, it essentially admits that the new Saints Row didn't meet sales expectations, while assuring investors that it's still "making a healthy risk-adjusted profit on games".
However, it goes on to suggest a stricter funding policy is in order, now that the dust has settled. It says: "We have therefore increased management focus and efforts to optimize investments and efficiency across the group even further."
All of this is perhaps best summed up with one particular sentence: "each project has to earn its right to exist." The report continues: "we will increase our efforts to put quality first even further, and make sure we create unique positive player experiences."
It perhaps seems a little harsh to single out Saints Row like that, but we suppose it is a prime example of what Embracer Group is trying to communicate. The project clearly had a decent marketing budget, it was in development for years, and it was later hit with a hefty delay. When it finally launched in August 2022, it was met with mostly middling reviews, and it managed to divide existing Saints Row fans. Not exactly a positive series of events.
What did you think of the Saints Row reboot? Do you think the franchise will ever return? Miss your shot in the comments section below.
[source embracer.com, via playstationlifestyle.net]
Comments 61
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@smellslikejavier yeah I wish they'd stop running full articles on the Frankfurt School, the Cultural Revolution and Marxist theory.
This game did to Saint's Row what Velma did to Scooby-Doo, so it's no wonder it's a flop.
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Or maybe just ask the fans what they want, rather than bring people in with a stated objective to reinvent under their own philosophies. I knew the game wasn’t for me after 3 minutes with the free character editor.
Things that are bad flop.
The original Saints Row games were already some of the best out there for acceptance. You could be whatever Boss you wanted, big, small, fat, thin, male body female voice, w/e, and the game would go along with your personal chaos.
The new Saints Row didn't recognise that and tried to chase a young audience they didn't understand, with bad characters and removing the anarchic soul of the series. 'Trendy' isn't a substitute for good writing and good game design.
Yeah, I think people called this out one correctly from the start.
Took them a while, huh?
I've still yet to install this game. Is it really as bad as some are saying it is. Enjoyed the SR4 plat with a friend though
Not surprised at all considering the overall tone of this game. Glad I didn't get this game honestly.
Glad to hear this one flopped. This game was ***** from every level
The game has its problems, but I’m currently playing through it with my brother and we’re both enjoying it. Not every game has to be a masterpiece. It’s nice to play something that’s just dumb fun every now and then.
Pretty words, but I'm not sure how much a focus-testing department would have prevented this travesty. It sounds like the kind of department that would guarantee they repeat it. Unless it's a "don't try to appeal to Twitter" department.
Fewer games have been as satisfying to watch fail as this one.
For all the studios Embracer has, reportedly over 130, I see very little success. What good games have they put out lately?
I played about half this and I didn't hate it. Granted I started it after a few patches so bugs weren't really an issue. I thought I wouldn't like the characters but I found myself liking most of them. The thing that made me stop playing was bad controls and the fact that it lost that sense of fun that SR games had in the past.
Good, that's what happens when you dont listen to your fanbase and spit on them.
@ThomasHL Couldn't have said it better myself.
Saints Row 2 was truly something special, as much as I enjoyed GTA San Andreas, Saints Row 2 IMO was overall the better GTA experience. It's sad how hard Saints Row fell from grace. Saints Row the Third was fine, but the cracks were clearly starting to show, and it felt like it was trying to be more like Crackdown than Saints Row, and Saints Row 4 was pretty much a Crackdown knock-off masquerading as a Saints Row game.
Honestly I think the signs were there for a long time, so Embracer only have themselves to blame here.
Sadly though, instead of gaining some wisdom from this, it will likely lead to them taking less chances with original/creative ideas, and instead focus on typical target audience tested boring titles that many should superficially like but no one will truly love.
Saints Row is the only viable alternative to GTA that we've ever had. That they would so willingly squander that reputation is nothing more than a real shame. Who was this game aimed at? It certainly wasn't fans of either property that's for certain.
It’s fairly conventional wisdom to back your winners. Scattering low quality double A content seems like a strange approach.
Saints Row peaked at 2 and has declined with every entry since, this really was the last scrapings at the bottom of the barrel. What's more worrying is that Embracer has yet to put out a decent game. They've bought up pretty much everything going, with Saudi money which is problematic in itself, but without the chops to do anything with it.
@ThomasHL this is basically all reboots nowadays not just games sadly.
I guess alienating and talking down to your core fan base isn’t a very wise business strategy. But putting that aside the game itself just looked and played like an Xbox 360 title. Maybe some of that marketing budget should’ve went into upgrading the game engine
Thanks for practically killing Saints Row, devs that thought they knew what people wanted from the franchise.
Well I liked it 😂
It was pure cringe and really fun actually. As open-world games go, I’ve played a lot worse.
I think the marketing failed this game. People never got over that first reveal.
I knew from the start that it would never live up to the original Saints Row. However, the game itself isn't bad. I actually enjoyed it, despite the bugs i experienced. Had it been released under a different name, it would have done better.
This is a shame, I love SR a lot but they dropped the ball with the new one.
They could've made millions if they stuck to their roots!!
Heck, GTA is still so far off!
I do love the customization in the new one though.
All I know is that from the screen shots and trailers I am not inspired much to purchase and play this game. When it's a Plus game I'll stream and demo it.
I recently streamed SR2. Still fun like it was in 2008.
@LifeGirl sleeping dogs was good too although that was more serious
I'm not a fan of saints row, but I enjoyed the first 2 games. I thought the character creation was good in this new game. I've tried the boss creator demo. I haven't played it tho to see how it is and never looked at gameplay. I looked at the price when it was coming out and I was like yeah, I'm not buying this.
this one looked surprisingly bad. embracer really is off to a bad start. perhaps it is a good thing that they sold the tomb raider rights to amazon — then again, i don't see amazon as a good home, nor capable to do the franchise justice, either.
If they just ditched those 'new gen' cool kids and made the crew be somewhat like previous saint row games...
$100 million apparently. They said they couldn't make a modern Saints Row game because of the "outdated" comedy, yet oddly they remastered Saints Row 3 with same the "outdated" comedy contradicting themselves.
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Am I missing something? What did this company do to piss people off (other than rease a so so title)?
I wish we could get a "sidequel" which would disregard SR4 and Gat Out of Hell and continued after 3. I'm sure there's a way to make that happen instead of a full reboot which was apparently not that great critically and financially.
Exactly the sort of reaction I was hoping they'd take from the lackluster sales and bad reviews/metacritic score.
Great game. Imo it's the best and most substantial since 2. Shame about the hatred it got for bing a new game, not a remaster. Really shows what is wrong with modern gaming.
@ItsBritneyB_tch
No, I think the previous games killed this game. We all knew it should have been 200 times better, and it seemed to deliberately set out to push away previous fans because the devs didn’t respect them and were seeking not to be associated with them.
@CutchuSlow
If you think the character creator was good in this game (!) then try it in 3 and 4. You can make far more varied and appealing characters in those. I literally decided not to buy this game after downloading the free character editor.
Gamers already saw this from the earlier previews, this game is made for those blue haired twitter users, which btw didn't buy games and only complaining angrily on the website on the "current things".
Never been overly impressed with any of the saints row with the most recent one impressing the least.
IMO only one GTA clone has eclipsed GTA and that is Sleeping Dogs. I'm surprised in this era of failed IPs that they don't just give us what we want and that is to play Sleeping Dogs 2 whilst eating a pork bun. PS would like a new story not a remake.
even that screenshot of the game is cringe as hell . so corny 🤮
They could have just remastered 1 + 2 and saved themselves a whole lot of money and reputation
I didn't play new Saint's Row, but not because of its direction or because it looked "bad", I've just grown out of the genre. I played SR3 and while I had some fun with it, I was really bored of the lack of mission variety by the end - this is a major issue with me and most open world games. My interest in New SR plummeted further after reviews came out and said the mission design hadn't evolved at all.
I think the comments about Volition alienating their fans are fair. They made a game that didn't really appeal to existing fans, but also didn't really make a game new enough to create new fans.
My biggest takeaways from this article are how does a project justify its own existence if it doesn't already exist? And I definitely worry about Volition's future as a studio. Saint's Row seems dead. Red Faction is dead. I don't see Embracer greenlighting a new IP from them.
I never loved their games, but they had a passionate audience. It just seems like these AA studios or whatever you want to call them can't exist in today's market.
Volition failed to read the room, so naturally the product failed. It's business, I get it, but it sucks other teams have to suffer because of one idiotic studio.
I sat down and played it when I picked it up for $20. I just wished I was playing saints row 3 or 4 or 2 nearly the entire time unfortunately. The activities were mostly boring, I only liked one of the characters, and despite claiming to give more character choice they made the boobies smaller. 3/10 it mostly runs fine after patches and some of the radio station music is okay.
@sonicmeerkat
The soundtrack was one of the biggest disappointments. Even as meh as I thought SR 3 and 4 were, they still had great OSTs. 1 and especially 2's selections were the best, imo.
@MFTWrecks Uh, well, the exuded the energy of Woke and people automatically don't like that. Add in the fact that it's not a great game that's when you have this reaction. People feel validated to keep playing certain games made in a certain way. So do videogame companies because I'm sure the next game is going to be some sort of Uncharted-esque game. That's okay and not great but they'll like it.
A nice way of saying, we messed up. We should have kept it traditional not tried to suit a new generation that get offended at water.
The game never looked that interesting from the start it's a pity it's such a mess. The fans deserved a lot better game. I liked SR3 but it didnt make me a massive fan. I really disliked the invincible upgrade it made the game quite boring.
@Bricktop33 You always modernise a game but you have to do it in a good way this game always looked bland especially the main cast. They where trying way to hard to make it something that everyone likes and ended up pleasing nobody.
It was a Saints Row game made for people that don't like Saints Row's humour, what did they expect.
@Yazzie I have no clue what that means.
I paid full price for the game, willing to be optimistic and give it a chance but it lit broke my sprit with just how bad EVERything was. Honestly the worst game I have ever played. It feels so lazy and broken at all levels. I wouldn't play it again if you paid me to.
@Darylb88 Sometimes, when everybody is hating on a game, there is a good reason for that.
@JayJ Yeah I wasn't aware much of the discourse around it as i don't use social media. I went in mostly blind thinking it was going to be like saints row games but sadly it was far from it.
@Darylb88 Yeah it's kinda hard to do that these days, I've been burned too many times like that.
@thefourfoldroot1 I don't have 3 or 4 and I didn't like how the game looked from trailers so never bought or bothered to try it.
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