“I think the franchise is dead,” says Saints Row design director

Original Saints Row design director Chris Stockman has declared the Saints Row franchise is “dead”.

Last November, Stockman revealed he wanted to revive the open-world crime series following the poorly received 2022 reboot – developed after he had left Volition – and claimed that publisher Embracer Group had reached out to hear more about his ideas.

Fast forward a few months, however, and Stockman is now less confident, responding to a fan on Discord that IP holder Embracer has “ghosted him” and “has zero ability to do anything with [the franchise]”.

“[H]onestly, I think the franchise is dead, unfortunately,” Stockman said in reply to a commenter who’d shared their dismay that the last canon game was released “a decade ago”.

“I get the sense that Embracer has zero ability to do anything with it,” he added. “I wish things were different. I tried my best to offer a path forward, but they’ve ghosted me.”

Stockman’s comments come after the CEO of Saber Interactive had some pretty damning words to say about the reboot and its developer, Volition, after it was shuttered in 2023 as part of then-parent company Embracer Group’s previously announced “restructuring” programme.

“They didn’t know what they were building,” Matt Karch said. “They didn’t have any real direction. It couldn’t last,” Karch said. “And so, who’s going to fund them for the next game after that disaster?”

I found the 2022 game to be a very mediocre affair when I reviewed it back in 2022, calling it a reboot that “won’t set the world alight, but there’s a punchy game here with some pleasant surprises”.