The unique Saints Row was an sudden hit. Rising above the tide of city sandboxes in 2006, the sport pushed its tomfoolery additional than even Grand Theft Auto dared. The newest entry, nonetheless, was a misfire. 2022’s reboot was busted throughout technical ranges and tonally out of sync for followers. Final 12 months, rumors arose that the sequence would possibly get one other go, however Chris Stockman, design director for the unique recreation, now says the long-running Row has a fork in it.
“I feel the franchise is lifeless, sadly,” Stockman told a fan on Discord (by way of Eurogamer). “I get the sense that Embracer has zero means to do something with it.”
Although Stockman hadn’t been with Saints Row developer Volition for years, he claimed final November that Embracer Group approached him to assist with a course correction for the franchise. The pitch, as he described it, was a Saints Row prequel set within the Nineteen Seventies. This new setting may have executed a extra balanced job at giving Saints Row a desperately wanted recent coat, whereas affording itself ample alternatives for its signature buffoonery.
Bear in mind once we bought excited in regards to the prospect of a Saints Row prequel? Properly based on Saints Row 1 Design Director Chris Stockman, Embracer is totally ignoring the concept.
Saints Row is as soon as once more lifeless. https://t.co/cpPVcRjxwD pic.twitter.com/FWpjC6kmkT
— rpg! (@papaRPG) February 20, 2026
Promising as that was, it didn’t get very far. Just a few months later, Stockman now believes he’s being ‘ghosted’ by Embracer and that it’s most likely the tip of the street for Saints Row’s 20-year pleasure trip. “I want issues have been completely different,” he wrote.
Whereas it’s since turn into the norm, Embracer Group have been one of many earlier conglomerates who bought into the observe of hoovering up recreation studios and squeezing them dry. They’ve toyed round with portfolios like Gearbox, Crystal Dynamics, THQ and dozens extra, all to blended outcomes. Their acquisition of Volition occurred in 2018, a part of a package deal within the buy of Koch Media. The 2022 reboot can be the one recreation Volition made below Embracer, developed below routine restructuring and workers transfers between different studios. When this banged up Saints Row failed to fulfill gross sales expectations, Volition was shuttered by Embracer in 2023.
This finish is merely one other web page within the guide of Embracer squashing out hopeful sequels, having lately binned revivals for Good Darkish and Deus Ex earlier than that. Their first outing with the Tomb Raider sequence, having picked up Crystal Dynamics in 2022, is already going through turbulence as Embracer enacts their signature restructuring.
