Saints Row 2 controversy concerns, graphics keeping it off Wii

by Alexander Sliwinski { Aug 4th 2008 at 7:30PM }

Saints Row 2 producer Dan Sutton tells CVG that the game isn't coming to the Wii over controversy and graphical concerns. He explains that implementing Wii controls for "chainsaws, satchel charges, stuff like that" in the game might risk the title running into Manhunt 2-style controversy. That's a bad thing? Apparently, SR2's developer, Volition, isn't totally run by the marketing department.

Sutton also explains that SR2 won't be making it to Nintendo's waggle-enriched juggernaut because Volition is "about pushing really good graphics" -- he believes the Wii feels like an older console. Ouch, at least he didn't mention duct tape.

Tags: dan-sutton, saints-row-2, thq, volition, wii

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Carrie @ Aug 4th 2008 7:35PM

Am I the only one who thinks that's probably the ugliest marketing picture ever created for a game?

Shadow El @ Aug 4th 2008 7:42PM

Yo check out his gold teef, playaaaaaaaaaaa

Cesaria (Pitchfork Fest 2008 FTMFW!) @ Aug 4th 2008 8:00PM

Your mocking of the idiocy of the rap/hip hop culture actually made me LOL. Man, I really wish they could hear how they talk. lol. +1 good sir.

Pidge @ Aug 4th 2008 11:05PM

Yeah, but it's an ugly marketing picture in a really good way. Like Megaman.

Geist @ Aug 4th 2008 11:14PM

No, the Megaman marketing is a throwback to the first one. This is just offensive to the eyes.

BananaBoat @ Aug 5th 2008 12:01AM

In the event that you didn't find the EXPLOSIONS and the BURNING HELICOPTER to be "hardcore" enough, they've added gold teeth. They make the entire thing X-TREME with a capital X

Shadow El @ Aug 4th 2008 7:35PM

As long as it has more Aquabats! music and references, I'm happy, no matter what console it's on.

mr mobius @ Aug 4th 2008 7:36PM

Then find a way around making chainsaw actions. It's not as if the Wiimote doesn't have buttons.

I reckon it's the graphics which are stopping them. Shame that there are superficial developers. Though I reckon they just can't be bothered going to the effort to make money.

tmacairjordan87 @ Aug 4th 2008 7:40PM

Or the fact that games like this don't sell well on the wii.

Shadow El @ Aug 4th 2008 7:43PM

Did No More Heroes sell badly?

Vidikron (FU) @ Aug 4th 2008 7:46PM

"Shame that there are superficial developers."

Whatever. I'm glad some devs do care about graphics... these are VIDEO games afterall.

mr mobius @ Aug 4th 2008 7:48PM

The 'video' you speak of means that it is an electronic and visual game. Ie. unlike a board game or a card game or any other sort of game. It does not necessitate high definition graphics. If it has then we've been lied to for twenty five years.

Vidikron (FU) @ Aug 4th 2008 7:54PM

Spin it however you want, the graphics have always been a major part of video games. I think it's a shame that some people have tried to demonize graphics these days. As if both gameplay and graphics can't co-exist. What's really funny is that many of the Wii fanboys trying to downplay them this generation were likely trumpeting them the past two or three generations. I don't think graphics are the most important, but they can and often do play a role in people's enjoyments of games. If this dev would rather keep their graphical standard at a certain level rather than butchering them for the Wii, I fail to see the problem with that.

Mr Khan @ Aug 4th 2008 8:02PM

That's what fanboys do, though

Sony fan: 5 years ago "Check the sales bitches!
Today: Sales mean nothing, it's about quality!
Nintendo fan: 5 years ago "Look at the awesome power of our lunchbox!"
Today: Gameplay > graphics, now and forever!

The Fatass of Kickassness @ Aug 4th 2008 8:03PM

"Or the fact that games like this don't sell well on the wii."

Lets compare.

No More Heroes. A game with absolutely no advertising whatsoever. Moderately hyped. Turned out pretty decent in the end. Wii game.

Sold 350,000 units.

God Hand. A game with pretty decent advertising (websites and video sharing sites were hyping it out the wazoo). Pretty damn hyped. Turned out fucking amazing in the end. Playstation 2 game (highest selling game system ever made).

Sold 70,000 units.

I wouldn't make a blanket statement like 'games like this don't sell on Wii' simply because we haven't seen many games like this and the ones that were like this mostly sold very well.

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Aug 4th 2008 8:14PM

@tmac

Or the more logical answer would be developers don't know shit about advertising to a new market. But I'm guessing you're just going to ignore that.

Sheppy (of the Fidlious Clan of Wong) @ Aug 4th 2008 8:44PM

"I reckon it's the graphics which are stopping them. Shame that there are superficial developers. Though I reckon they just can't be bothered going to the effort to make money."

I really wish this concept of lazy artist would drown in the liquid ignorance which birthed it. It's fairly simple. Game Artists are often coming fresh out of college, learning all sorts of cool shit. Normal mapping, specular mapping, hiding polygons in detailed texture maps. Essentially the people being trained in schools right now are learning cutting edge tools. For many, DS, Wii, PS2, and PSP projects are likened to biding their time until they get put on the real projects. To have a game artist say they don't want to work on Wii isn't an insult. It's the fact that many have spent the past four years of their lives learning to draw, paint, sculpt, write, work a television camera, study films, acting itself, all culminating to applying these skills to cutting edge, multi hundred/thousand dollar software tools. So for a game artist, yes... graphic whoring is part of the job. To push the visual limits. I, in fact, am unsatified at my current job because of the limits imposed with what I want to do.

Ridgecity @ Aug 4th 2008 9:59PM

"Did No More Heroes sell badly?"

yes it did.

samfish @ Aug 4th 2008 11:51PM

"God Hand. A game with pretty decent advertising (websites and video sharing sites were hyping it out the wazoo). Pretty damn hyped. Turned out fucking amazing in the end. Playstation 2 game (highest selling game system ever made)."

I take issue with this. Though it's the Greatest Game Ever, I wouldn't say it was very well hyped. Okami had more going for it than God Hand. Kotaku wrote a few love letters to it, D-toid had a few things on it and Joystiq basically ignored it. Smaller places on the web, like Video Gaiden, showered it in the praise it deserved, but IGN gave it a 3/10 (because they're morons and didn't play the game) and others like 1UP and Gamespot gave it fairly average reviews.
So yeah. It SHOULD have been well hyped, but it just wasn't, IMO. Certainly not the way, say, Bioshock or Gears of War was hyped prior to their release (when the advertising kicked in).

That said, it is vastly, VASTLY superior to No More Heroes in every freakin' possible way.

Also, it warms my little heart to see someone not called 'samfish' talking about the Greatest Game Ever!

Deadpool @ Aug 5th 2008 1:26AM

IGN gave God Hand a 3 out of 10? What kinda crap is that?! That reviewer must have ate brillopads for breakfast that day because that was a real jerk face thing he did. Arrogant Punk!

Mr Khan @ Aug 4th 2008 7:38PM

I would imagine because Saints Row 2's target market is utterly incompatible with Wii

If this were 5 years ago, they would be skipping GameCube, too.

Questworld @ Aug 5th 2008 3:26AM

Agreed. It wouldn't matter if this was the Cube or Wii. Heck I like "mature" or "hardcore" games but even I have no interest in games like this. And by "like this" I don't necessarily mean theme or game mechanic. I mean I like the Godfather game, but games like that 50 cents one, True Crime, or this seem repulsive to me. I think it's the whole ghetto, modern gang, urban warfare, hip-hop, rap, etc. "culture." I just don't like those things regardless of medium.

rv @ Aug 4th 2008 7:43PM

Would you expect anything more?

The Erotic Awakening of S @ Aug 4th 2008 7:50PM

In before retards saying "DURR IT'S NOT AS GOOD AS GTA 4"

Cesaria (Pitchfork Fest 2008 FTMFW!) @ Aug 4th 2008 7:58PM

I think the idiots would be saying that this looks good. If anyone can look at that picture up there and say 'hey, that looks pretty good!' then they must be exiled from man kind forever, by means of jettisoning them into the cold vacuums of space.

Shadow El @ Aug 4th 2008 8:01PM

Like how the original Saints Row wasn't as good as GTA: San Andreas or whatever GTA was just coming out at the time?

Cause, it wasn't.

Rollins @ Aug 4th 2008 9:06PM

"Like how the original Saints Row wasn't as good as GTA: San Andreas or whatever GTA was just coming out at the time?

Cause, it wasn't."

It may not have had as much content, but the controls were miles ahead of GTA: SA. It was just more fun to play.

BIGFAT @ Aug 4th 2008 9:49PM

GTA:IV wasn't even as good as GTA:SA.

GTA:SA is like the king of having shit to do in a game.

Mr.ESC @ Aug 4th 2008 9:54PM

In before retards saying "DURR IT'S NOT AS GOOD AS GTA 4"

Yes because the right phrase is It won't be as GOOD AS GTA 4 because the game is yet to be released... Amirite?

I bought GTA4 for the same reason I bought COD4 for mere recommendation and I have to say I was gladly surprised with GTA4 (Also COD4) because it had a good story something that SA lacked, I’m not looking forward to another SA or this game since is not my type of game. I just posted because I want to let clear I hate these “you are retard if you something, something” comments, is the kind of thing only a butthurt fanboy would post.

With that say it might be good but unless it has a good storyline I don’t think I’ll buy it, sandbox games are not my thing (Except for Garry’s mod)

LOKIOLR @ Aug 4th 2008 8:01PM

Well I think Scarface did pretty well on the Wii. It had chainsaws and violence similar to Saints Row, so I'm not sure what the issue is. Saints Row was never as graphic as Manhunt 2 anyways.

Mr Khan @ Aug 4th 2008 8:03PM

Or the Blackhand edition of The Godfather, which dead gesture-based violence right

Jacksons @ Aug 4th 2008 8:05PM

Oh well, plenty of other platforms to play it on.

Cesaria (Pitchfork Fest 2008 FTMFW!) @ Aug 4th 2008 8:08PM

Anyone want to know the inside secret to this game's creation? A bunch of old white guys in suits did a search on google to find the most offensive and stereotypical images pertaining to the hip hop culture, printed them on the box, and took a shit inside. Oh, and they included 187 references to Scarface.

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Aug 4th 2008 8:16PM

yeah I wouldn't be surprised if that was true.

Bromadrosis @ Aug 5th 2008 12:08AM

Or, rather, a bunch of late 20's/early 30's dudes figuring they can put a Spinal Tap spin on thug life (not sure what caucasions with gold teeth and chainsaws have to do with hip-hop, brah), wrap it in an acceptable sand-box derivative, and sell enough copies to make the developer and publisher happy. It worked the first time, did it not?

Or we can assume Activision/Volition is run by Paul Newman from the Hudsucker Proxy, I guess.

Bromadrosis @ Aug 5th 2008 12:13AM

Activision? THQ? Whatever. I am sure one will be a part of the other soon anyway.

samfish @ Aug 5th 2008 12:38AM

I don't think that Saint's Row is...yknow, for kids.

BigD145 @ Aug 4th 2008 8:21PM

I always like to think when I'm playing golf on the Wii that I'm really taking a chainsaw to someones crotch. Was that a slice or did I just aim for the right nut?

Jon2309 @ Aug 4th 2008 8:24PM

Controversy? In a game where a porn star is aiding development? I never expected that!

Sheppy (of the Fidlious Clan of Wong) @ Aug 4th 2008 8:52PM

Controversy? On a system which recent had a big "todo" about a game being called Beer Pong, who'd a thunk it?

MariosInferno @ Aug 4th 2008 8:33PM

Well, I think the Wii can do without any more shovelware.

invaderalex @ Aug 5th 2008 8:22AM

Congrats...
you just won the internet
I may not be loling but you won the internet

Cal @ Aug 4th 2008 9:03PM

So was I the only person to actually enjoy the original SR? It was far better in terms of fun than GTA:IV...

Badboy1979 @ Aug 4th 2008 9:13PM

Nope, you're not the only one. I enjoyed the first one too. This one seems to be a little more "over the top" than the first... at least with the marketing scheme (nick nolte, tera patrick, in your face grillz, etc.) As long as this game does what the first got right (with the gameplay advancement u'd expect from a sequel) than i can ignore the crazy marketing. I haven't finish GTAIV yet but so far it's not leaps and bounds above SR1 and definitely on the same level in the fun department.

SoulBlade @ Aug 4th 2008 9:28PM

Bummer - but we've always known the Wii can't push graphics like the other systems. Way to tell us something we didn't already know.

It's their choice - I respect it. Like someone said earlier, graphics have played an integral role in games. It's not that the devs are lazy or whatever - perhaps they just know that graphics are a key component to providing a great experience. Other devs may not feel the same way.

Of course, if they were hurting on money, I bet they'd shit out a port in a heartbeat.

mundox @ Aug 4th 2008 10:14PM

I'm son getting this on pc :)

Ridgecity @ Aug 4th 2008 11:44PM

That's the first gang I see using the color violet. Is Mtv taking too much control of the minds of the american gangs????

F1 & The Sword named Caladbolg @ Aug 5th 2008 12:04AM

Defacto censorship. Such a shame that such a B-grade game made nearly every developer loose their edge.

John @ Aug 5th 2008 2:23AM

THe original SR was majorly fun. I hardly ever play GTA, it's just too boring and rigid.

As long as you don't have half a dozen assholes calling you every 5 minutes on your gimmicky cell phone, I think it'll be cool.

Seriously, what do all you tards knocking this game for being a GTA clone think was innovative about GTA4?

The game is tired and boring, I like to have a little controll over my character and not be stuck playing "movie cliche b"