Chris Stockman, design director of the original 2006 crime action game Saints Row, has revealed his interest in reviving the franchise following the disaster that was its 2022 reboot, claiming that he has been asked by publisher Embracer Group to pitch a prequel.
This comes after Stockman rightfully called out the reboot missteps during a recent interview with Esports Insider. “There’s a level of expectations for a Saints Row game, and [the reboot] missed the mark on all of them,” he explained.
“When I found out that they were rebooting Saints Row, I spoke to an old friend of mine who was my old boss for Saints Row 1. He was the producer, and I was learning about what they were doing, and I thought, ‘Man, this is a terrible idea.’ What is it trying to be? You’re rebooting it, but why are you rebooting it? There’s a lot of characters in the series that people love. It wasn’t Saints Row at all. Just call it something else at that point.”
At the time, Stockman also requested IP owner Embracer to reach out, saying, “If you’re listening to this, contact me. Let’s go. I can bring much of the old band back together who worked on Saints Row 1. I could turn that IP around with a decent budget. They don’t even have to fund it. I could get other outside people to fund it. I could turn the franchise around. I know I could.”
It seems his requests were, in fact, heard by Embracer, as the director recently wrote on the Saints Row subreddit that he had “hopeful news”, writing “I’ve been asked to create a pitch for a Saints Row prequel. I can’t say anything more than that, but my dreams for this game just became a little more than just dreams”, adding that the game being pitched will not be a VR title.
Although Stockman kept what he had in mind for a potential revival close to his chest, he did reveal via replies to post comments that he will be “trying to resurrect the franchise by doing a prequel” and that he wants to “take the series back to its core roots but also blend in some of the stuff that people loved about [Saints Row 2].”
Still, fans can get a good idea of what plans he has in store for the potential prequel, as in the same interview with Esports Insider, Stockman adds that if he had done the reboot differently, he would have taken the franchise “back to the 70s and do a period piece, a prequel of how the gangs from the first one started. You’re running around with a crew of teens that ended up as the main characters for the first game. You could really go all in on the 70s theme with big Afros, bell-bottoms, and the music of that whole period,” and honestly, that sounds amazing.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
Si Jia
Jake Su
