THQ pushes back Saints Row 2 release

Hot on the heels of the groundbreaking success of Grand Theft Auto IV, THQ said in an interview with Reuters that they are pushing back the release of Saints Row 2 from August 2008 to October 14, 2008.

THQ’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Bob Aniello, told Reuters that the reasons for this change were due to production quality concerns and to increase marketing efforts.

“Product quality is a huge driver of a game’s success and this move allows us to polish the game. The game is done, it’s about polish,”

Bob Aniello, senior vice president of worldwide marketing said.

It isn’t often that we read that a major publisher is worried about the quality of one of its top game titles.

THQ is still trying to rebound after poor revenues in 2007. Saints Row is hoped to be a major factor in the publisher’s attempts to bolster their 2009 sales, which they have forecast to jump from 95 cents to $1.05 per share.

“There is a bigger trend within the industry to build big marketing events within a bigger time window. This allows us to lead up to the holiday timeframe,”

Aniello said.

Some have to speculate if this move isn’t in responses to Rockstar’s huge sales and the positive critical response to Grand Theft Auto IV. Saints Row, upon its 2006 release on the Xbox 360, was targeted by critics and gamers for its obvious similarities to the GTA.

Come October, 12, 2008, we will see if the GTA IV buzz has died down, and if gamers have enough interest for another GTA clone.

Read [Reuters] Also Read [Gamespot] Site [Saint's Row 2]