Brain Farrell, CEO of THQ, has said that the company’s forthcoming Saints Row 2 contains enough elements to differentiate itself from other titles in the sandbox genre to ensure its success when the game hits stores later this year.
Speaking at the William Blair & Company’s investor meeting on Wednesday, Farrell commented, “We have a very differentiated product in this open-world genre.”
“We’re always concerned about GTA as a competitor. It’s a great product, the leader in the genre. But we were actually very pleased when we saw GTA IV. It’s a great game, but they went in this great creative direction [that makes the game] more character- and story-driven,” explained Farrell.
In contrast to GTA IV, Saints Row 2’s focus will be geared towards “tongue-in-cheek … silly, over-the-top gameplay,” he explained. “…They had gone this way on the branch, we’ve gone the other."
Farrell further added that the sequel would contain a vast array of character customisation, "a lot" of downloadable content, a "larger, richer environment," in addition to a unique combat system and "seamless" two-player co-op functionality.
"We think that we have a very differentiated product with Saints Row 2,” he asserted.
The original Saints Row was released exclusively on the Xbox 360 in 2006, and has since gone on to drum up over two million sales worldwide.
Saints Row 2 is currently scheduled for release on PS3 and Xbox 360 in October 2008.