Embracer CEO “hoped for a greater reception” to ‘Saints Row’

The head of Embracer Group has admitted that the recent reboot of Saints Row didn’t meet his expectations but that insists the series’ future is not in jeopardy.

Following a mixed response to the Saints Row release in August, where NME said the game “just isn’t all that good”, Embracer Group has now held its annual general meeting. Embracer is the parent group that owns a multitude of gaming studios, including Saints Row developer Deep Silver Volition and publisher Plaion.

During that meeting, Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors acknowledged that he had higher hopes for Saints Row’s release. “Obviously, personally I had hoped for a greater reception of the game,” said Wingefors. “It’s been a very polarised view, and there is a lot of things that could be said and details around it, but I am happy to see a lot of gamers and fans happy. At the same time I’m a bit sad to see also fans not happy. It’s difficult.”

Acknowledging that Saints Row is still “fairly early in [its] release window,” he also mentioned that bug fixes and new content are on the way (via, PC Gamer) but when prompted as to whether the mixed response has changed his opinion on the long-term future of the franchise he said it had not.

“You always want every instalment of any IP to be greater than the last one,” he said, explaining that there is a “process to evaluate your position, the outcomes” and that the Embracer Group has “hundreds” of people engaged in Saints Row. Wingefors went on to reiterate that he has “great trust” in that team of people and was sure they would make the right decisions for the future of the game.

Closing out the AGM with a Q&A section, Wingefors also mentioned that he was aware that “Saints Row, for example, is one of the harder ones in terms of return on investment. His assured attitude to the franchise continued as he closed out his response by stating that period of a smaller return on investment is “behind” the company, and that it “will make money”.

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