When publisher Deep Silver announced that the fourth Saints Row game would launch on August 20th, more than a few eyebrows were raised. That puts the open world caper only a few weeks ahead of the long awaited Grand Theft Auto 5, widely expected to destroy every sales record ever set.
Volition, the developer of the entire Saints Row saga, isn't worried however. It's confident that the shift away from the cheeky crime gameplay of the original Saints Row will help to make their its game stand out. GTA won't have aliens or dubstep guns, for example.
"It's a big one, and we talk about it a lot," said Jim Boone, talking with Eurogamer about the looming shadow of GTA. "Obviously when they announced their date and it was so close to us - that was an interesting phenomenon. But honestly, the way that we tend to look at it is that here's this huge game that's coming out at the same time and it's going to sell a tonne. We know that, and it's unfortunate from that standpoint."
"But the thing we feel good about in general is that we're such a different game to what they are. If we were stylistically similar to the first Saints Row, I'd be horrified right now. The genre's matured enough where you can have all these different styles and still be an open world game and be different. So I look at GTA 5 and think there's this massive game coming out, but I don't think with our superpowers and alien invasions that no-one will be comparing us to them."
Saints Row 4 hits PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on August 20th. GTA 5 follows on September 17th. Will you be playing both?