Volition describes ‘Saints Row’ November update as “a beast”

Deep Silver Volition has described the imminent Saints Row November update as being “a beast”.

Saints Row, the reboot of the popular open-world action series which sees players starting up their very own criminal enterprise, launched on PC (via Epic Games Store), PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Google Stadia on August 23 this year.

After the release where NME said the game “just isn’t all that good”, the head of Embracer Group admitted that the recent reboot didn’t meet his expectations but insists the series’ future is not in jeopardy.

With a new update to the game due later this month, Volition has confirmed that the update “includes over 200 fixes and quality of life updates, so it’s a beast!”

In a new patch hub update, the developer said: “You should see more pedestrians and police,” as well as “more Saints roaming completed districts”.

In addition, they promise “loads of new ways to manage your incredible fleet of vehicles, including more slots to use and 7 new garage locations”.

Reviewing Saints Row upon its release this summer, NME wrote: “Saints Row is a mixed bag, in honesty. I had a lot of fun during my time with the game, but there’s no escaping the fact that it just isn’t all that good. I usually give games a pass for bugs during the review process but there were several here that soft-locked me into the character creator, or into a car, or blocked progression on a level.

“Across the board everything is pretty much okay, so the bugs bring it down into being somewhat annoying. Still, Saints Row is good fun, it’s just a shame that the characters and setting of Saints Row aren’t matched by the other aspects.”

During the September meeting, Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors acknowledged that he had higher hopes for Saints Row’s release. “Obviously, personally I had hoped for a greater reception of the game,” said Wingefors. “It’s been a very polarised view, and there is a lot of things that could be said and details around it, but I am happy to see a lot of gamers and fans happy. At the same time I’m a bit sad to see also fans not happy. It’s difficult.”

Acknowledging that Saints Row is still “fairly early in [its] release window,” he also mentioned that bug fixes and new content are on the way (via, PC Gamer) but when prompted as to whether the mixed response has changed his opinion on the long-term future of the franchise he said it had not.