Saints Row felt like a desperate bid to save an already dying studio. You could actively feel the budget running out as you played the game.
Not like they did themselves any favours with the direction, but I think even if the game was better or sold better, it would’ve prolonged this at best. You can take the “it’s about family” hit to your reputation when you’re Star Wars, not when you’re a niche GTA competitor.
“So I killed an entire city, which caused the dead body clean up cell to overfill and explode dead bodies into the void, which first makes it rain dead bodies and then crashes the game.”
It’s inevitably going to be labelled woke because it has a female protagonist, a non-white female protagonist at that!
Also there was some stuff in the leaks about
spoilera right-wing militia which you can encounter and presumably slaughter, kinda like the KKK in RDR2, so expect Ben Shapiro to get upset about that
I don’t think GTA6 is gonna be quite where they play it safe just yet, their brand recognition relies too much on crass satire of America. The Saints Row Reboot also totally flopped financially, so I don’t think anybody is going to take them as inspiration. I think the execs are just smart enough to know why GTA sells.
Dan Houser and Lazlow (the guy responsible for all of the amazing radio ads and talk shows) both only left very recently (relatively speaking) and likely did a big share of writing for the game before that. And Sam Houser is still there, isn’t he?
And 6 is obviously gonna have its own Online. And as somebody who was very active in the GTA Online space until a few months ago, they’re hitting the limit on what they can cram into this decade old game without it just crumbling under its own weight. Like, genuinely, the engine is struggling.
I think the singleplayer, aka the important bit, is going to be good. Leaks looked pretty promising. Probably not going to be as revolutionary as people expect after 10+ years of hype and speculation, but still probably a top tier video game surpassing their previous titles in many aspects. Online is probably going to be biggest shitshow of all time, though. Microtransactions, FOMO, subscriptions, battle passes, the works. Every bad thing about games as a service packed into one, with the additional bonus being that Rockstar can’t program a multiplayer to save their lives, so it’s going to be peer 2 peer, with the shitties netcode and matchmaking possible and absolutely zero protection from hackers. You know, like their last two multiplayers.
I love just cruising around San Andreas’ map, stopping at roadside restaurants, clothing shops, betting shops etc., just kind of going on a little roadtrip with K-Dust in my ear
Was it? The primary thing they’re selling through MTX is player and weapon “skins”, which were already a thing in the past games (they didn’t sell them, IIRC, but realistically they could’ve). I guess the booster packs and stuff like that wouldn’t really work without the RPG leveling, although I question how profitable those really are.