“It’s about half way through our interview, one in which Rubin talks bluntly about past mistakes of THQ, of the problems he foresees for the company, of the challenges he and THQ face, that I broach the subject of Saints Row the Third.
I haven’t played the game, I confess to Rubin, because I wouldn’t want to be caught playing it by my wife or my son. It would be embarrassing.
While most reviews for the game were positive, Edge Magazine seems to have felt the same way when they gave the game a relatively low score in their review, calling the title a “fratboyish endorsement of crime and female degradation, devoid of any conscience or commentary.”
Saints Row the Third isn’t a bad game, but it’s not the sort I’d want to play, I tell Rubin. Then I ask him if he thinks that’s an issue.
“That’s why I am here,” he said, after saying he wants more from Volition, “because of what you just said.”
To be clear, Rubin isn’t saying there isn’t any room in his company “for a game that features a purple dildo,” in fact he points out there are now two such games (the other is South Park: The Stick of Truth). But that sensibility isn’t always a good fit for a studio.
“It works for South Park, but I’m not sure it does elsewhere,” he said. “I don’t think (Volition) chose to do what they did because they had all of the options available to them. It was the environment at the time.
“I know I can change that.”
Fuck
The future of SR isn’t looking good
Now come on friend, it doesn’t take a genius to recognize that he’s not criticizing Saints Row as a whole, rather just the (rather unpopular, as I’m sure you’ve seen) changes to the series formula that SR: The Third made.
It doesn’t “take a genius to recognize” that he’s not talking about changes to the series at all. That’s just wishful thinking on your part.
He says specifically that Saints Row 3 and Saints Row 3 alone is an embarrassment, and goes on to state that, among other things, ‘dildos and Saints Row don’t mix.’. If that’s not a statement against the slant Saints Row 3 took, then I don’t know what is.
You’re putting something in quotes that doesn’t exist in that article. Nowhere in the article does he say that “dildos and Saints Row don’t mix.” What he does say, and I will actually quote it directly:
“To be clear, Rubin isn’t saying there isn’t any room in his company “for a game that features a purple dildo,” in fact he points out there are now two such games (the other is South Park: The Stick of Truth). But that sensibility isn’t always a good fit for a studio.
“It works for South Park, but I’m not sure it does elsewhere,” he said. “I don’t think (Volition) chose to do what they did because they had all of the options available to them. It was the environment at the time.”
That’s not saying anything at all about past games in the series. That’s all in your imagination. What it is saying is that Rubin doesn’t like the TONE of the series and that Volition shouldn’t be making games like that. He goes on to talk about Skyrim and RDR as the type of thing he wants.
The ‘dildos and Saints Row don’t mix’ was actually a quote found in another article on the topic, still, it certainly matches the sentiments shown in this one. But in any case, unless my memory has failed me and giant purple dildos have been part of the series since the original game, that argument can only be a criticism of Saints Row 3 and the change in tone it had from the last two games.
If I may take my own turn to spout something about things being all in your imagination, in the full article Jason Rubin, as well as the article’s author and editor, actually stress that by no means are his statements a criticism of the Saints Row series as a whole, rather a statement that Saints Row 3 could have received more work, and that he would like Volition to move away from what the article’s author consider to be the embarrassing feel of the game.
When Rubin states that he’d like the next Saints Row to be more like Skyrim or RDR, sure, that could mean that he’d like to have Volition put revenue before everything else when making the next Saints Row, or that he intends to perhaps give the next game an unhealthy bend in an attempt to manipulate a certain audience, but Jason Rubin is an outspoken advocate of the idea that developers should not be restrained by their publishers, and unless he’s had a complete change of heart since his last speech on the topic, those are two very unlikely outcomes. While he’s undoubtedly talking of changes to the formula, the most reasonable guess as to what those changes exactly are is that he wishes the series to move back to the more serious bent it had in the first two games, as well as to allow Volition to spend more time on the development of the next game, changes which I, at least, feel could only be good for the series.
Stressing that his statements weren’t criticisms was put in after the fact due to the massive backlash that the interview generated. It looks like damage control and back pedaling to me.
One of two things happened at that interview. Either Rubin was a suckup sycophant agreeing with anything the interviewer said instead of defending his studios like he should have, or he actually is embarrassed about the franchise.
Think about this… In his E3 video interview he didn’t even say one word about Volition and instead talked exclusively about the Darksider devs and the Metro ones. Those actions seem like they fit quite nicely with the idea that he is embarrassed about the game and didn’t want to say anything. What else makes sense? SRTT sold 4 million copies and was the sole reason that THQ is even still breathing at this point. Why would he not even mention it until a later interview talking about it as an embarrassment. That’s pretty damning in my eyes.
In any case, I apologize for my insulting first comment, but hey, this is a topic that we both feel very strongly about, and it’s only inevitable that some name-calling happens at first.
It certainly wasn’t the best way to start the discussion. But yeah, it’s a heated issue and we both feel strongly about it. /brofist
If Rubin’s still keeping up his belief that developers shouldn’t be restricted by their publishers, then even with his poor behaviour so far it seems to me that it’ll be quite unlikely that he’ll be doing anything drastic to Volition or Saints Row. You’ve certainly won the argument on how Rubin feels about the series, but whether or not he’s going to let his opinions affect Saints Row is really anyone’s guess at this point, especially considering the aforementioned fact that SR3 is just about the only thing keeping THQ alive.
I sincerely hopes that Rubin stays the fuck out of Volition’s way and lets them do what they do best. SRTT was a rushed game in many ways, and I have to wonder if pressure from THQ caused it. If V has the time and manpower I would like to think that they could make something that was a true timeless classic.
For example, when compared to SR2, SRTT had no day/night transitions, severely reduced clothing layering, no clothing logos, boring city with no distinct looks to districts, no walks, no facial expressions, severe lack of interiors, terrible storytelling (but great actual dialogue), filler missions (activities), no air/water traffic (planes/boats), no female cops, severe lack of melee weapons, no diversions like ambulance and taxi (also no taxi service), and no mission replay.
The lack of plane/boat/heli customizing was also surprising considering that it was an often requested feature and most player loved the SR2 mods for it. The lack of an ability to toggle upgrades was also a huge oversight and made postgame boring as hell if you bought the invincibility stuff.
If they could add all this missing stuff back in, and craft a good story, and take the time to tell it well, and not completely change certain previous characters for no reason, then SR4 could really be something special.
No argument there.
last week , i read a danny bilson interview about saints row the fourth , he said that its gonna be greater than all the three games in the series put together and he also stated in the review that there will new stuff we have never ever seen in any game lets hope the new president dosent interfere with its development or dissolve saints row in order to create a red dead redemption or skyrim clone…
Well, that’s not good for us. My 120 hours in SRTT disagree a lot with his idea of “fun” in videogames.
I think there is market for evertyhing, and if SRTT has sold so much it’s because of something.
If THQ doesn’t make that game, I’m sure EA, Ubi or another one will take it.
For the love of God, please no.
Its really sad and I should be ashamed but I have 361 hours in SR3
:v
Fun in videogames
I had the time of my life
I have over 400 hours in the game, I think. And before that 200 in Saints Row 2, on XBOX, and later 100 more on PC version with some mods. Yes, I love Saints Row! Though from part 2. I played 1, but the lack of a female char made it less fun for me personally. And I do hope THQ’s new president will allow V to work on their game with their own ideas. They haven’t failed yet. I just hope the new President will allow V more time to make a more finished product, and perhaps let them create worth while DLC wich are longer then 2 hours. But by the love of God almighty himself… DO NOT LET EA INTERFERE! Cos that means your main game will be 12 hours and the other 230 hours you have to buy extra with DLC!! ( Perhaps exagerated, >.> ) Ubi must stay away as well, with their stupid having to be online in order to be able to play the game. If anyone should take V after THQ, it should be Rockstar, but they already have GTA, so.. Doubtfull. Tough they could make extra money if they did… Compete SR against GTA. They would have 2 games that look alike, but are completely different for 2 types of audiences… Yeah, I think after THQ, Rockstar could be a nice company to take over V.
More proof that publisher CEOs need to be evil & useless.
Aaand there goes my hope that SR4 would be even better than SR3. I just hope they keep going with the DLCs for a while.
EDGE is a magazine which gave Doom 7/10 because you couldn’t stop and talk to the monsters. Make of that what you will.
As for Rubin’s comments, this is deeply troubling. Executive meddling is never a good thing. That last thing the franchise needs is some twat interfering and taking away the one thing that sets Saints Row apart from GTA.
Given their past form in arbitraily ditching franchises, This could be the final nail in THQ’s coffin.
I’m eternally amazed at the displays of cowardice by executives. “We’re having money troubles? I know! Let’s downplay the risky franchise whose surprise success is the only reason we’ve stayed afloat and make yet another boring, nearly storyless, inoffensive sandbox in an already glutted market!”
I get (or at least I hope) that this is a decision based purely around money and expanding THQ’s demographic to the unfortunate people who would never touch as pimpin’ a game as SRTT, but they have to realize that turning their back on Volition is turning their back on a huge segment of their paying customers.
Oh jesus christ… They should focus on working better on the game for pc, first, better use of resources, adding more free roam fun aside the single player campaign, give modders decent mod tools, eliminate the stupid and limited characters save and upload to web.
Give us more customization (our favourite mp3 on the radio for example) Also mke upgrades reversible… there is a lot that has to be done.
What bothers me is that I can’t find the full text of the “interview” anywhere, and I really hate Brian Crecente (the “interviewer”). The quotes we get are shortened, out-of-context, out-of-sequence, and sometimes paraphrased, held together by Crecente’s muddled, meandering writing where he doesn’t even seem to be making a point.
Crecente says that the quote at the beginning of the article actually comes from about halfway through the interview, and that he told Rubin that he never actually played SRTT because “it would be embarrassing.” Given that bit, I read the quote you’re all up-in-arms over as meaning that he knows Volition is talented enough that eventually they’ll make something that won’t be “embarrassing” for Crecente to play.
You gotta admit that Saints Row The Third exaggerated with the silliness though. Volition says SR4 will be even crazier, I’m afraid to ask what they mean by ”crazier”.
Then there’s Enter the Dominatrix, seriously, WTF?
I think I’m gonna like Enter the Dominatrix. Major Matrix spoof. Always fun. Let’s hope they add bullet time. xD As for SRTT beeing exaggerated, it was compared to SR 2, but still it was very fun to play. I wouldn’t mind if SR4 will be more.. serious again. Like SR2, it has lots of serious missions and when you had a silly mission, it just made it extra fun. Almost like following a very serious series with a silly episode now and again. I do hope they will work on a better engine for the game, with better LOD. But overall, SRTT looked rather awesome for a Sandbox game that big. I just hope with crazier, they mean more missions, more sub-misisons, more cars, more traffic, more abillities, more upgrades that you can troggle, or make it more RPG’ish in that matter, like.. if you drive more, your driving skill gets higher, or if you shoot with a pistol more, you train yourself with the pistol, stuff like that. Could be fun. Or take the easy way and buy it with cash. =P 4 player co-op would be epic. OR like in Saints Row 2, a larger multiplayer mode. Or Gangwars with 16 versus 16. I hope they mean crazier by that. But I will buy it non the less. So far Saints Row didn’t let me down.
Shortly put, they focus too much on being ”as less GTA as possible”.
i really hope THQ president not liking SR dosen’t affect the future games
I hope it does. This guy should be president of EA Games, he could turn it around in no time.
Last thing he said now is that THQ will concentrate on free web games and titles will be 3A with low budget…
Yep. Douchebag.
Oh lord…
He doesn’t need to like it or play it, the game’s not marketed for people like him then. He can play angry birds while his family watches instead.
But if he doesn’t understand the kind of games his company is good at then he’s only going to ruin it, he should hire someone else that does understand the industry to handle those things for him if he’s incapable of doing them himself.
Of course maybe he doesn’t care about the business much and would prefer to use his position to fight the immoral sins of “fratboyish endorsement of crime and female degradation, devoid of any conscience or commentary.”
I hope they give the SR franchise to someone else after they file bankruptcy at least.
Didn’t volition bring us the red faction series? They can and do make serious games. Saints Row on the other hand is a breath of fresh air in a market over saturated with clones…screw the corporate bastards.
What made Saints Row so much fun is that you played a Power Tripping character. It was a rush to do crazy things, pull it off, go home to your kick ass penthouse and listen to the dialogues of the characters. It was so sarcastic and fun most of the time. And Saints Row 2 had a serious side.
I loved the 3 missions where you could decide the outcome. What would be even cooler if they would use the pedestrians that way as well. To give you the choise to do good or bad. Like cleaning up the hood by taking away all the competition, or making it worse with drugs, prostitutes and bandits by taking out the competition as well in that hood. =P The difference would be how the city would look ( Cleaner or dirtyer ) and how the pedestrians respond to you ( Cheering you on, or flat out starting to beat you with a baseball bat ). Also if the cops would put more preasure on you since you are bringing that hood down into badness, or letting you go at times since you do such a good job cleaning up. And I don’t mean letting the game focus on that like with Fable, but would be fun if it was a small factor in the game. Makes it more interactive. I mean, if they want to make SR 4 crazier and stuff, and since the new president of THQ is talking about Skyrim and shit… I think this would be the most fun way to go. Oh, and I miss the cutscenes inbetween the missions and sub-missions. =/ Sometimes I had no idea what was going on in Saints Row 3…