The Saints Row franchise has endured a tumultuous period. From a prolonged absence, punctured by a mediocre spin-off Agents Of Chaos, to the 2022 commerical and critical flop, Saints Row, the franchise has been through the wars, and the developer, Volition has lost the sheen on it that once build over the course of the franchise’s earliest entries. Today, Embracer Group’s latest earnings report has led the company to speak out about the reception of the game.
The report outlines both Embracer Group’s thoughts on the game’s reception but shines a light on their plans for the studio going forward, presumably in the hopes that it will improve the output from the studio and the franchise going forward. The extract from the report reads,
The reception of Saints Row did not meet the full expectations and left the fanbase partially polarized. The game development studio, Volition, has been working hard to improve the player experience. Financially, Saints Row has performed in line with management expectations in the quarter. Going forward, Volition will transition to become part of Gearbox which has all the tools, including an experienced management team in the US, to create future success at Volition. This is the first internal group transfer where we transfer a major studio between operative groups, but it is not necessarily the last.
As the corporation continued in its report onto the sales and earnings portion of their report, further information was revealed about the impact of Saints Row since it was released,
The main revenue driver among new releases in the quarter was the highly anticipated Saints Row reboot, released August 23, developed by Deep Silver Volition. As of mid-October, the game had been played by over one million players. The financial contribution from Saints Row in the second quarter was in line with management’s expectations, and the game is expected to generate a positive ROI. The reception of Saints Row did not meet the full expectations and left the fanbase partially polarized. The game development studio, Volition, has been working hard to improve the player experience.
After the quarter came to a close, an internal group transfer was announced, with Volition to be transferred from Plaion’s umbrella to its new overseers at Gearbox. With Gearbox’s games sharing similar, but more successful results to what Volition’s games have achieved, it can be assumed that Embracer’s expecting the Gearbox influence to rub off positively upon the developer.
