After the Saints Row reboot flopped spectacularly, it appears there is no real chance for the IP to return.

Saints Row is dead. Long live Saints Row? No – it is, in fact, dead. At least according to Chris Stockman, design director of the first game, who said as much on Discord in connection with his new company, Bit Planet Games. Screenshots of Stockman’s comments have surfaced on Twitter, where he replied to a post lamenting the series’ silence since January. He believes the franchise is dead. He feels that Embracer has no intention of doing anything with it, and wishes things were different. According to him, he tried everything to outline a viable path forward, but they simply ignored it.

Stockman appears to be referring to a plan he mentioned back in November, which would have taken the series back to its roots. That would have been a popular move, considering the 2022 reboot arrived, failed, and then quietly disappeared. Volition shut down a year later when Embracer restructured its business. More recently, on the Bit Planet Discord server, Stockman reiterated that the ball is firmly in Embracer’s court. On February 17, he wrote that as long as the company remains operational, the IP belongs to them, and they could license it to him or contract the studio to manage it – but he has done everything in his power to make that happen.

Remember when we got excited about the prospect of a Saints Row prequel? Well according to Saints Row 1 Design Director Chris Stockman, Embracer is completely ignoring the idea.

Saints Row is once again dead. https://t.co/cpPVcRjxwD pic.twitter.com/FWpjC6kmkT

— rpg! (@papaRPG) February 20, 2026

Even under ideal circumstances, reviving this once-beloved Grand Theft Auto-style series would be an uphill battle. In both of its incarnations – first as a semi-realistic crime game, then as an unhinged sci-fi parody with dubstep weapons and giant dildos – Saints Row was just one thread in the wider tapestry of anarchic crime sandboxes that dominated the market from the mid-2000s onward. The surrounding zeitgeist played a major role in its success, especially as the series leaned further into absurd self-parody.

The novelty of open-world games has since faded, and this style of design is far less common today, despite massive Rockstar hits like Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto. If Saints Row truly is dead, then it now shares its fate with franchises like Prototype, Crackdown, Sleeping Dogs, and Sunset Overdrive.

Forrás: PCGamer