Saints Row series creator Chris Stockman says that leaving the game before the release of GTA 4 was important to the success of the series, and that the team took a lot of notes from the design of Grand Theft Auto.
Although Saints Row eventually became famous thanks to the second and third games, many people forget how much the original game combined the style of Grand Theft Auto. However, it worked out pretty well at the time, considering it was the first GTA-style game to be released on the Xbox 360, and GTA 4 didn't come out for nearly two years after it.
Talking to FRVRWhen asked if the game – and the series as a whole – would have been as successful if GTA 4 had already been released on the Xbox 360, Stockman responded with a resounding “no.” He explains: “One of the key successes and the reason for the success of this game was the timing of its launch.”
It wasn't just GTA that Stockman was afraid of launching at the time, however, and he adds: “It launched in August, well before the Christmas rush… Thank God it wasn't a launch game, it wasn't competing with Oblivion, and it didn't have to compete with Gears of War, which came out about three months later.”
