14 DAY TRIAL // Saints Row 4 is designed to only launch on the PC and on current-gen consoles, but the development team at Volition does not believe that Xbox One and PlayStation 4 games can compete with their open world experience.
Jim Boone, a senior producer working on the game, tells GamesIndustry that, “I think the big thing that we have going for us is that our game is so unique and different from everything else that's out there, and because we have an audience that absolutely loves this game, that helps us cut through some of the other noise that's out there.”
He says that there’s enough distance between the launch of Saints Row 4 and the release dates for the next-gen consoles from Sony and Microsoft for the game to become a success before it faces tough competition.
Boone believes that Saints Row: The Third had worthier competitors because it was forced to compete with games like Skyrim, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Uncharted 3.
The developer adds, “There were a lot of big heavy hitters going out at the same time, so I wondered. And it went out and was the biggest Saints Row game we’ve done yet.”
The fourth core Saints Row title will focus on an alien attack against Earth which the band needs to repel by entering a virtual world that allows them to gain superpowers.
The game will feature a gun that fires dubstep at enemies and another which actually creates black holes.
Saints Row will be out on the PC, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 on August 20 in North America and three days later in Europe.
The Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 are expected to arrive during the month of November, although no clear dates have yet been mentioned.