Embracer Group Is Taking Fewer Risks After Saints Row Flop

thegamer.com:

Sorry Saints Row fans, don't go expecting another instalment anytime soon. In a recent financial report, publisher Embracer Group says that it is knuckling down on which projects get greenlit, suggesting that it is going to take fewer risks. From now on, it says that each game it publishes will have to "earn its right to exist".

This comes as Embracer admits that Saints Row had a "lower return on investment" than it would have liked, going on to suggest that it "underperformed". Therefore, it seems unlikely that another Saints Row game would "earn the right to exist", putting the series on ice once again.

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Embracer hasn't released Saints Row's sales figures, but it's safe to assume that they are much lower than the company would care to admit. The report pins the game's failure on its mixed reception - sitting at a dire 2.9/10 user score on Metacritic - as well as a "softer consumer purchasing power" in 2022.

Of course, as many of us remember, the Saints Row reboot burnt through a lot of its goodwill before it had even launched. Making the bold move to scrap almost everything from the first four games, Saints Row would have to do something great to justify such a move. But with a whole lot of bugs and a largely boring open world, it failed to live up to its legacy. Now, it could be the reason why we don't see the Saints again for some time.

Concluding the section of the report that mentions Saints Row, Embracer says that it will "increase efforts to put quality first even further," suggesting it will be much more careful with which games get greenlit. And considering the Saints Row reboot was lacking in quality, it seems that the company is done with the