Volition’s Saints Row was originally due to release on February 25th, 2022, and has now been delayed by six months to August 23, 2022. It seems to be just another game that has fallen victim to Covid delays. Having been first announced at Geoff Keighley’s 2021 Gamescom Opening Night Live in August, Saints Row is a reboot of its 2006 predecessor. The action-adventure game will take place in the fictional city of Santo Ileso in the American Southwest. The city is said to be “rife with crime, where lawless factions fight for power.” Saints Row will follow a group of friends as they “embark on their own criminal venture.
Chief Creative Officer Jim Boone of Volition released an update on the game via Twitter, announcing the delay.
In his statement, Boone specified, “Our priority is to create the best Saints Row game yet and, if we released on the original date, it wouldn’t be up to the standards we’ve set ourselves, and that you’re expecting and deserve. The team just needs more time to do our vision justice; we’re doing some fine-tuning and there won’t be much change in the game outside of overall quality and polish. In all honesty, we underestimated the impact COVID would have on our schedule, although everyone adapted very quickly to the working from home arrangement and continued to be incredibly productive.”
As has happened with many games, developers have underestimated COVID-19’s impact on development. Many game developers have been forced to completely revamp their work structure due to stay-at-home orders. Six months is thankfully not as long as other games have been delayed. Hopefully, the wait will be worth it.
According to the new update, Saints Row will release on August 23, 2022, on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. A post-release expansion pass is set to include at least three pieces of DLC while a pre-order bonus and digital-only special edition will offer additional cosmetic content.