THQ left very little room for interpretation today in regards to Saints Row: Drive By, the XBLA and PSN spinoff of its puerile open-world series. "We are not developing Saints Row: Drive By," a THQ rep told Joystiq, confirming reports of its cancellation.
That likely means there won't be a 3DS Saints Row game either, since core games CEO Danny Bilson said that the planned 3DS project was the same as the XBLA game. Given the kind of weaponry we've seen in the latest Saints Row game -- weaponry we're not too keen to see in 3D -- we're at peace with the cancellation.
THQ told Joystiq it had "no further comment at this time" regarding the 3DS title specifically.
According to the LinkedIn resume of one Mr. Scott Rogers, "Creative Manager for THQ's CORE games, CORE Digital Games Group and Kids and Family Groups," the downloadable Saint's Row spinoff, Saint's Row Drive-By, has been cancelled. The project was first obtusely revealed when THQ Core Games chief Danny Bilson said the 3DS-bound Saint's Row title was already being made for Xbox Live.
Later Bilson said, "We actually changed the design and are doing something more unique. This is just creative but we wound up feeling the game we were building was too much like a section of Saint's Row that you could play in Saint's Row." We're not so sure that canceling a game is the best way to make it more unique - that's old territory.
At GDC 2010, Bilson first revealed to Joystiq that THQ would develop downloadable games from its stable of "Core" brands, including Red Faction and Saint's Row. In advance of Red Faction: Armageddon's early June launch, THQ released the underwhelming Red Faction: Battlegrounds on XBLA and PSN. Following a string of negative reviews - including our own 2/5 - a THQ rep called the reception a "disappointment." If Saint's Row Drive-By was shaping up to be cut from the same cloth, a cancellation may have been a wise move.
We've reached out to THQ for an official comment on the status of Drive-By and Saint's Row 3DS.
Not much is known about THQ's downloadable Saints Row title, save for the fact that it's in development for Xbox Live and is also likely to land on Nintendo's 3DS in some form. In a new interview with Shacknews, THQ's head of core games, Danny Bilson, alluded to some changes made to the title's direction and its dependence on a larger game.
"That one is changed. It's changed," said Bilson. "It's going to be a different--we actually changed the design and are doing something more unique. This is just creative but we wound up feeling the game we were building was too much like a section of Saint's Row that you could play in Saint's Row." Bilson added that this Saints Row would feature an "original game mechanic" that would aid it in supporting the larger franchise.
THQ's approach, then, seems to diverge from the one that spawned Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, a downloadable prequel to Capcom's zombie masher, Dead Rising 2. Capcom called its $5 teaser, composed of gameplay similar to that found in the retail follow-up, its "most dynamic sales weapon" ever, having sold over 500,000 units by the middle of September.
Bilson, however, believes "you don't want to play something that you can play within the main experience." You might be inclined to agree, but only because there's another dynamic sales weapon pointing at your head.
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