Matthew Karch, CEO of Saber Interactive, has touched base on the demise of the Saints Row franchise during a chat with Stephen Totilo, explaining the franchise had become “too expensive for what they were” and simply couldn’t continue any longer.
The executive noted that “the Saints Row team is gone,” before going into detail as to why he felt the series needed to bite the dust, suggesting developers can no longer throw tons of cash at games anymore unless they’re on the same level as Grand Theft Auto.
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They were so expensive for what they were. They didn’t know what they were building. They didn’t have any real direction. It couldn’t last. And so, who’s going to fund them for the next game after that disaster? It would be nice in an ideal world for everyone to have a job. But games with nine-figure budgets are making eight figures in revenue and that’s dooming a lot of developers.
The days of throwing money at games other than maybe the GTAs of the world is over. It’s over. This business needs to mature. If it doesn’t, the whole business is in trouble. Unfortunately, that means layoffs.
The last Saints Row game was released in 2022 and didn’t achieve the critical and commercial success that its predecessors enjoyed, ultimately leading to Embracer Group shutting down developer Volition. It was later reported that Saints Row sold around 1.7 million copies, which makes it the least successful entry in the franchise to date.
[Source – Game File Interview with Matthew Karch via GamesRadar]
