Last week, Deep Silver Volition revealed Saints Row 4, the next installment of the wacky Saints Row franchise (formerly a THQ property). The game is due out on August 23, less than a month before the highly anticipated release of Grand Theft Auto 5 on September 17. For a franchise that often draws comparisons to Rockstar's open-world series, this could be viewed as a potential problem, although Saints Row developer Volition doesn't seem too worried.
"Yeah, it's a big one, and we talk about it a lot," Volition producer Jim Boone told Eurogamer. "Obviously when they announced their date and it was so close to us – that was an interesting phenomenon. But honestly, the way that we tend to look at it is that here's this huge game that's coming out at the same time and it's going to sell a ton."
"We know that, and it's unfortunate from that standpoint," he acknowledged. "But the thing we feel good about in general is that we're such a different game to what they are. If we were stylistically similar to the first Saints Row, I'd be horrified right now. Saints Row: The Third came out the same time as Assassin's Creed, but the games are so different in terms of what they do."
While Saints Row and Grand Theft Auto were often lumped into the same sandbox action-adventure genre early on in their lifecycles, the two franchises have actually distanced themselves from each other in recent years — in terms of style and tone. Both games are still meant for mature audiences, but Saints Row has taken more of an over-the-top, silly/wacky approach (big purple dildo bats, aliens, things of that nature); Grand Theft Auto still has its over-the-top moments, but for maintains a more realistic approach towards its narrative.
"The genre's matured enough where you can have all these different styles and still be an open world game and be different. So I look at GTA 5 and think there's this massive game coming out, but I don't think with our superpowers and alien invasions that no-one will be comparing us to them," Boone concluded.
Do you plan on buying Saints Row 4 or Grand Theft Auto 5 this fall? Or both?
