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Saints Row series creator Chris Stockman says getting out before GTA 4 released was essential to the series' success, and that the team took more than a few notes from Grand Theft Auto's design.
While Saints Row eventually came into its own with the second and third entries, many forget just how much the original game was playing it straight with the Grand Theft Auto style. However, at the time, it worked out pretty well, given that it was the first GTA-style game to release on the Xbox 360, with GTA 4 not dropping for almost two years after it.
Speaking to FRVR, when asked if the game – and series at large – would've taken off as it did had GTA 4 already launched on Xbox 360, Stockman answers with a definitive "no." He explains, "One of the key successes, and the reason why that game was successful, was because the fortunate timing of when it launched."
Stockman says that in those early years of the Xbox 360, "there was no competition, really, for your gaming dollar on a platform that was starting to spread like wildfire," because at that point, there weren't any open-world titles in that style available on the console. So if everyone had been playing GTA 4, the need for that style of game would've been lessened for a lot of players.
And while calling a game a "ripoff" is often an inaccurate jab when it comes to many games, Stockman admits, "the design? Dude, I took it wholesale. There was that air of familiarity there like 'am I playing a GTA game? No! But I kinda feel like I am.' That was intentional, entirely intentional." Although he adds, "I think there were enough differentiating factors" with Saints Row, including character customisation and a day/night cycle.
However, it wasn't just GTA that Stockman was afraid of launching alongside at the time, as he adds, "It launched in August, well before the Christmas rush… It was not a launch title, thank God, it didn’t compete with Oblivion, and it didn’t have to compete with Gears of War, which came out like three months later."
