Deep Silver and parent company Koch Media knew they were buying a sure thing when they acquired the rights to Saints Row in the Great THQ Auction of 2013. As THQ disintegrated over the course of the past three years, Saints Row: The Third was a lone bright spot in the company’s line up, a game that managed to connect with players and critics alike. Developer Volition Games, now Volition Deep Silver, was already knee deep in developing Saints Row IV when THQ’s assets hit the auction block, and now the game’s just a few short months away from release.
Deep Silver said on Friday morning via a press release that Saints Row IV will hit Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on Aug. 20, the beginning of what will likely be the last big fall push for those home consoles before the PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720 dominate big game publishing.
Taking place in the aftermath of Saints Row: The Third, the player’s character that leads the Third Street Saints gang has been elected President of the United States. Rather than beating off rival gangs with baseball bats, guns and enormous rubber marital aids, the gang is now fighting off an alien invasion. Anyone still comparing the Saints Row series absurdism to Rockstar Games’ comparatively staid Grand Theft Auto series should reconsider at this point.
Deep Silver hasn’t commented yet whether or not players will be able to carry over saved data from Saints Row: The Third into Saints Row IV, though it naturally should considering how Saints Row IV started development. Shortly after taking over as THQ CEO in 2012, former company president Jason Rubin announced that Volition would turn planned DLC for Third into “The Next Great Sequel in the Saints Row Franchise.”
Volition was planning on releasing the substantially-sized downloadable expansion for Third titled Saints Row: The Third: Enter the Dominatrix when the decision was made to turn that into Saints Row IV. “I asked the team what it could achieve given more time, more resources, and a broader scope for the project,” said Rubin at the time, “We all agreed we wanted to play that game. When it comes to Saints Row, it’s clear out fans want bigger, better, and even more over the top, and that’s why ‘Enter the Dominatrix’ will now be incorporated into a vastly expanded, full-fledged sequel, scheduled for calendar 2013.”
