TheSaints Rowfranchise has had a bit of a turbulent history in the last few years. With the first game in the series being a solidGTAcompetitor, the second game being a genuinely excellent open-world crime game, the third presenting itself as a goofier and more over-the-top game, and the fourth deciding to turn it all up to 11,theSaints Rowserieshas changed a lot over the years, and with each change, the fan-base has become more divided. By far its most divisive entry was this year’sSaints Rowreboot, which was panned by the vast majority of critics and players, putting future DLC support in doubt.
Released back in August of this year, fans had been skeptical about theSaints Rowreboot since its very first announcement. While some fans clung to the hope that this would be a more groundedSaints Row, and a return to the series' roots, others expressed their disappointment with the new characters, worrying that the developer was going to attempt to hard to appeal to a younger demographic. For the most part, their fears became true.WhenSaints Rowreleased, it received a rough receptionfrom all audiences, with an immense number of bugs and technical issues, unsatisfying combat, repetitive gameplay, and cringe-worthy characters. Despite all this, with every modern day big release getting post-launch DLC, even its failure might not be the end forSaints Row.
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The Chances of Getting Saints Row DLC
WhenSaints Rowlaunched, those who had purchased the Deluxe Edition of the game received an expansion pass that would apparently give them a discount for any upcoming DLC. On this pass, it was specified that there would be three story DLCs for the game after launch. In October,developer Volitionannounced that it had stopped working on any post-launch DLC so that it could focus on fixing the base game first.
Since then, Volition has been true to its word. On November 16,Volition releasedSaints Row’s “Bright Future” patchwhich added a plethora of fixes to the game. These fixes were vast, ranging from co-op stability fixes, to combat and vehicle control tweaks. This patch had the bold goal of trying to fix all ofSaints Row’s issues in one fell swoop, even changing the aiming controls so that they’d feel more satisfying, and adding open-world mechanics. For istance, it included a tiered progression system where players would be able to see more Saints gang members walking the street the more that they’d taken over.
This major patch does prove that Volition is listening to its fans, and it shows that the developer is determined to makeSaints Rowan enjoyable experience, but it might not be enough to warrant any large-scale DLC expansions. While this patch did fix some ofSaints Row’s most glaring technical issues, it couldn’t fix the title’s core gameplay loop, or its story and characters, and fans are still left disappointed.
According to Volition,Saints Rowis still set to receive its story DLC expansions at some point in 2023, but whether it’ll follow through with these or not is another matter. Right now, Volition seems pretty obligated to produce DLC forSaints Row, since those that bought the Deluxe Edition are entitled to it. However, it might be easier for Volition to simply hand out refunds for the expansion pass, rather than spend more time and resources creating DLC for a game that just doesn’t have the player-base to justify long-term support.
Saints Rowis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
