Saints Row and the Grand Theft Auto franchise have a very unique history with regard to one another. Obviously, the latter came first, and then the former was one of the first clones of the legendary series, albeit with a different overall feel and storyline. At first, there was no real competition between them, but with the rise of Saints Row: The Third, the series was taken to a new level, and many wondered how long it would last. It didn’t last too long sadly, and a reboot was eventually made and launched last month. Want to know how badly it went? Well, Grand Theft Auto got the last laugh without even trying.
Over in Europe, the August sales charts have been revealed and the Saints Row reboot was in second place. That’s not too bad–lots of best-selling games end up missing the top spot due to timing and such. Except, the number one game in Europe last month was GTA V! Yes, the game that continues to shock people with how well it’s selling despite the fact that it’s been a decade since its release.
Now, some are trying to paint this as being not as bad as it looks, but here’s the problem. If the reboot was everything that it was hoping to be, then defeating its rival from a decade back wouldn’t have been a problem. But as fans and critics have noted, the new game in the franchise had a lot of problems, and that led to negative buzz coming out before the game was even released in Europe or elsewhere.
Plus, this isn’t the only recent bad press surrounding Saints Row. The game was made by Volition and Deep Silver, and their parent company Embracer Group recently had an investor’s meeting. There, it was revealed that the CEO was indeed “sad” at what was being said about the reboot. They hoped that the game would be still able to make money, but the future of the franchise is now very much up in the air.
One of the biggest problems with the reboot is that it just didn’t have that same fun and flair as the original four main titles. The third and fourth main games, for example, took things to extremes and made them work both times. The reboot tried to go back to the times of the first two titles, which were good games but not on the same level as the later ones.
The buggy nature of the reboot didn’t help things either, with multiple reviews pointing out the many issues present at launch.
Don’t forget that people are thinking more about GTA more than ever before due to the leak of the sixth game. Yikes.
Source: GameRant
