14 DAY TRIAL // Saints Row 3: The Third is set to topple the pre-order record for its publisher, THQ, as the company is certain that the game will manage to hold its own against other, bigger games that will be out ahead of the winter holiday season.
Saints Row 3 is the next installment in Volition's open-world sandbox title, and, from what we've seen up until now, is shaping up to be the most outrageous, as the developer isn't holding back on the outlandish mechanics that will be included, like over the top wrestling moves instead of normal melee fighting, while polishing up the graphics and the fidelity of the gameplay.
We recently saw the start of the pre-order bonus campaign for Saints Row 3: The Third, in the form of the Professor Genki’s Hyper Ordinary Pre-Order Pack, which offers players an in-game costume based on the virtual Professor Genki, a gun that shoots octopi and a truck with a cannon that can shoot pedestrians in the air.
This resulted in a massive surge in pre-orders for the game, with THQ saying that the game is set to overtake the previous record held by Homefront, which appeared earlier this year.
“We already have very strong indicators that Saints Row: The Third will be our best pre-order title ever,” UK marketing director Jon Rooke told MCV.
“Homefront was our last best one, and we are now well ahead of the curve with this title. Since we’ve started this Genki activity, we’ve seen our rate of pre-orders increase dramatically week-on-week. That’s not a pattern we’ve seen this early in a product before.”
The THQ executive also admitted that while Saints Row 3 will be released among many other heavy games, like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Assassin's Creed: Revelations or Skyrim, many gamers will no doubt enjoy the over the top open-world sandbox title.
“We’re in that mix of big established brands,” said Rooke. “We want to get consumers talking about Saints now – not wait until September when they have already gone somewhere else. There’s less cash in consumers’ pockets these days, especially at Christmas. We have to fight for every pound. We think Saints Row is a great product, and with Genki we have a great pre-order campaign to help us cut through. And the signs show that it’s working.”
Saints Row 3: The Third is available for pre-order at a variety of retailers, and will be released on November 15.