350k Saints Row downloads

By GamesIndustry International Published 22 August, 2006

During the demo's first week.

THQ has championed the use of Xbox Live Marketplace to distribute pre-release demos of Xbox 360 games, revealing that the recently released Saint's Row demo was downloaded 350,000 times during its first week online.

The demo release forms part of a wider pre-release marketing campaign, which also includes television advertising in seven countries, cinema campaigns in Europe and Asia Pacific, print advertising, and retail pre-order campaigns.

Those pre-ordering in-store will be able to take home a specially made DVD containing the Xbox 360 demo, a "making of", original music and Marketplace icons and themes.

The full game is due out on August 29th in the US and on September 1st in the UK, and is exclusive to Microsoft's next-generation console platform.

"We've put significant resources behind the Saint's Row marketing campaign, generating tremendous buzz with creative grass roots efforts and the strategic timing of pre-release content," said THQ's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Bob Aniello.

"Our multi-million dollar advertising campaign will continue to fuel anticipation in the weeks leading up to launch and we believe extensive plans for post-launch downloadable content will further establish it as a must-have title this holiday season," he added.

Pre-release Xbox 360 downloadable demos have proved immensely successful so far, with Fight Night Round 3 said to have enjoyed a 40 percent demo-to-purchase conversion rate following the release of its demo.

Meanwhile, the Dead Rising demo is currently one of the ten most popular activities among 360 owners with Live connectivity - with strong US sales pushing the full game to second in the same list behind Call of Duty 2.

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Comments (40) Latest comment 6 years ago

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  • OnlyMe #1 6 years ago

    I thought they were going to have 350 downloads on offer during the first week of release. :p

  • the_dudefather #2 6 years ago

    hopefully this will encourage developers to release more demos pre-release.

    like 'just cause' in a day or two

  • Zerimski #3 6 years ago

    Just a shame that it's appallingly bad.

  • Aretak #4 6 years ago

    The demo was excellent.

  • LOLLERS #5 6 years ago

    haha what a waste of bandwidth that could have been used to carry porn or something

  • speedjack #6 6 years ago

    I wouldn't say its bad... just nothing new.

    Its GTA (without the humor) gone next gen, which if you're not prepared to wait until next year for the real thing is an ideal stop gap.

    Me? I'll pass.

  • DCrider360 #7 6 years ago

    saints row is definately going to take off in a big way upon release!!

  • bluebird #8 6 years ago

    @DCrider360: are you a hired guerilla marketeer of that awesome multi-million dollar Saint Row budget?

  • IAmBatman #9 6 years ago

    I wonder how many of those downloads will convert into sales. Demos are only good for sales if your game isn't a total waste of time like this.

    "Played it have we? "

    Why assume that just because someone thinks a boring shitpile is just that, they haven't played it?
    Edited by IAmBatman at 22/08/06 @ 11:27

  • Xerx3s #10 6 years ago

    hopefully this will encourage developers to release more demos pre-release.

    like 'just cause' in a day or two

    forget that. GoW! \0/

  • sharpfish #11 6 years ago

    350k downloads and it's still a cliched, intelligence insulting, lacklustre, tearing and jerky p.o.s. ;)

    Thank god for Dead Rising!

  • jonsaan #12 6 years ago

    Actually. I too thought, oh this is a crappy GTA clone.

    But I gave the demo I second chance later on and it really is quite good. It actually does a lot of things better than GTA.

    Shame about the hideous voice acting. Still at least you can turn the swearing off, unlike GTA where you have to turn off all the sound effects.

  • glaeken #13 6 years ago

    Funny I probably would have bought this before the demo. The demo changed my mind completely. I found the driving really dull and the cars just felt slow even at their top speeds. It did not feel like there was any weight or momentum behind the vehicles. As for the shooting mechanics I thought they were terrible. Sounded great on paper but once in a car I had no chance of hitting anything.

    The only demo's to really work and would result in my buying a game so far are Fight Night 3, Lost Planet and Dead rising.

    Still I think the whole demo thing is a great feature.

  • mingster #14 6 years ago

    blatant GTA ripoff.

    Do a Bizarre creations and have it banned under copyright infringement

  • Zerimski #15 6 years ago

    @boabg

    Yes, I have actually. I'm not a fan of the whole "urban" "street" thing, and am of the opinion that the only games to carry it off successfully are the GTAs, and that's because they have plenty of character and don't just rely on the "urban"-ness, "street"-ness and slaughter of pedestrians to get through.

    Saints Row is nothing new, and from what I played in the demo it even fails at some of the most basic things. Pedestrians jump in front cars. I managed to lose the police by driving past them in the opposite direction. As has been mentioned, the cars feel floaty and sluggish. The missions that I've played have all been of the generic "go here, shoot him" variety. The only nice touch that I found in the hour or so I played the demo for, was the ability to make people fly through the windscreens of their cars, and FlatOut does that better.
    Edited by Zerimski at 22/08/06 @ 11:57

  • escapedape #16 6 years ago

    I thought this was utter crap too. The demo was swiftly deleted from my hard drive.

    Charmless and unappealing gang action, not for me thanks!

    The Dead Rising demo on the other hand...can't stop playing that and discovering new stuff. Anyone else discovered the Katana yet?

    Very much looking forward to the Just Cause demo too...the trailer is superb!

  • Carpathian #17 6 years ago

    I did download and play the demo.

    Awful, terrible, bad.

    Just three words I used while playing it a couple of times before deleting it from the HD.

    Was prepared to be pleasantly surprised but didn't come close.

  • escapedape #18 6 years ago

    Exactly what Zerimski said. It's what the GTA clones always get wrong: the tongue firmly in cheek and the cartoony nature of the GTA games somehow makes the wholesale slaughter of innocents not only acceptable, but entertaining.

    Stick the same thing in a game that is presenting everything with a straight face and it suddenly becomes very distasteful. The attempts at 'kewl' in Saint's Row are just embarrassing from present evidence.

  • Nostromo13 #19 6 years ago

    it is an excellent game, i will certainly be picking it up.

  • Darren #20 6 years ago

    I enjoyed the Saints Row demo a lot despite the horrendous tearing, lack of humour/character and blatant lack of originality. The more I played it the more I enjoyed it, it's as fun as any other "sandbox" game I've played, so I'm definitely buying the full game.

    It's a shame about the tearing though, it really jars, and at one point I decided with so many games coming out on the Xbox 360 that I'd only buy the ones that scored on average over 60% AND didn't have tearing. Then I realised if I did that I'd only have about four Xbox 360 games to choose from! LOL

    (I am being sarcastic, of course, but the point remains valid!)

  • Stormflood #21 6 years ago

    I love downloadable demos.

    I've recently pre-ordered Dead Rising, and learnt that Saints Row is shit, all because of d/l demos.

    Keep 'em coming...

  • penhalion #22 6 years ago

    @Darren

    What screen did you play it on? I played on a samsung Hi-Def LCD and didn't notice any tearing.

    I actually enjoyed this game more than GTA for the reasons most people seem to hate it i.e. you can do the missions and don't feel that they are so hard that you are only left with the sandbox to play in. I liked the cars as you could handle them and not crash constantly into oncoming traffic. I enjoyed the way you could steal girls from the pimps as a side quest.

    So far it looks to me like a GTA clone which plays better than GTA.

    Given some of the comments I've seen (which apply equally to the original GTA) I can't help laughing and wondering what you guys will be saying about GTA4. Especially if it turns out to look and play worse than Saints row

  • seregrail7 #23 6 years ago

    "YOU CANT CLIMB - how am i meant to find a great sniper position."

    You can climb over walls... were you expecting the ability to climb up the side of a building?

  • PlugMonkey #24 6 years ago

    I thought it was pretty good fun as well. I liked the way the cars handled, as in a game like this I don't want to be constantly wrestling with the controls to stop me crashing when I'm trying to make good my escape. Easily controllable is what I'm after. And I thought the weight of the cars in crashes was far more believable than in GTA and the like.

    I'm not sure if I'll feel like parting with 50 quid for it though. I wasn't completely captured by the story line of "Now go here and murder these teenagers in a senseless act of gang violence. It's fun!".

  • Darren #25 6 years ago

    @Penhalion - I've got a 26" Samsung LE-26R41BD HDTV and was playing the demo via VGA at 1360x768 and noticed a lot of v-sync tearing from five feet away even during the THQ credit sequence as the game loads up! LOL

    If I remove my contact lenses and sit further away I don't notice it as much so perhaps that how I should play any Xbox 360 game that has tearing in future. Saves moaning about it everytime a new games comes out I suppose...
    Edited by Darren at 22/08/06 @ 12:30

  • cannabinemsi #26 6 years ago

    i think i'll rather play through the hilarious plot of san andreas again, than picking up saint's row. this game really does some things better than the king of the genre, like aimingcontrols or drive by shooting - mechanics. but on the other hand it fails miserably in the way of making the story fun. it all seems to be about the coolness - and honestly, being tha cool gangsta pimp with bitches in the back doesn't seem so desireable for me anymore.

    plus: there are no motorcycles and no planes - that's next gen? in september my 360's DVD drive will be busy rotating dead rising :)

  • rudedudejude #27 6 years ago

    Not played it, bit it's got to be be better than that 'Godfather' pile of brown doggie leakage.

  • escapedape #28 6 years ago

    @Penhalion:

    The GTA series have NEVER been visually stunning, and have never tried to push the visual envelope. However, despite being fairly ugly graphically, they've always had oodles of character, which is more than can be said than the pretty but vacant Saint's Row.

  • Perry #29 6 years ago

    I liked the demo, which was a surprise as I was expecting the demo to be the last nail in the coffin of "never buying a GTA clone again".

    But I liked this one, it just interested me and seemed like fun.

    I am a massive GTA fan though, so anything that gets close in gameplay for me is a positive.

    As I always say, I know its cool to say GTA sucked, but for me it was one of the best games I've played over the last 3 years. Because it was fun......

  • TheBard #30 6 years ago

    I loved the freeroaming, but I cant be bothered with yet another stupid gangwar game. San Andreas was too much, but it had its funny party. Saints Row doesnt even have that.

    But Just Cause looks really nice.

  • AdamWest #31 6 years ago

    great demo!

  • lefizz #32 6 years ago

    Sorry i downoad saints row as a joke thinking it would be utter shite, I havted everything about the prmise and style, the whole gang crap. Just nt interested at all.
    However it is probably one of the best demo up on live, and thats isnt due to a general lack of quailty before anyone jumos in.

    It really does seem to be a rather nice GTA cloen but it does certain thing much better , the most important beign aiming and of course its physics make just drivign around and crashing a lot huge fun.

    The other thing is its a great demo, somethign you can play and it really draws you in. Unlike say Dead Rising, that really is a terrible demo, it might be a great game but the demo is so limiting and annoying ( walk anywhere where a cut scene kick in and the demo ends) that you loose what ever sense of fun it might have had

  • escapedape #33 6 years ago

    @lefizz

    Not exactly hard to work out that you have to stay in that one part of the mall in the Dead Rising demo in order to keep playing (at least until the 7pm time limit) - or is it?

    The Dead Rising demo is hardly limited, given the amount of items provided and wildly varying ways to mess about with them. A 'lot huge fun' more than 'driving around and crashing'.

  • penhalion #34 6 years ago

    @Darren

    A while back there was a problem with some versions of the Sansung which had tearing due to a software issue that affected the refresh rate of the screens. You may want to look into this as samsung doa free upgrade for you.

    I have the slightly larger version of the same screen and it has no tearing. I am playing in pal 60 at 720p though so maybe it is optimised for that.

    You can use the TV menu to see what refresh rate your screen thinks it is set to. It's in the info display (though I suspect you knew that already).

  • Skooch #35 6 years ago

    "I am playing in pal 60 at 720p"

    Huh? I am no Hi-Def expert but surely it's PAL-60 OR 720p, it can't be both can it?

  • sharpfish #36 6 years ago

    To the guy with no tearing, check your eyes. I have a HD 32" Toshiba tv (720p) and I know of many other people with tearing with all sorts of TVs (including CRTs). In fact the worst thing about saints row is the tearing*


    * and the fact that the game is made for image led 13 year old white males who wish they were actually real gangstas and think it's "kewl" to gratuitously mame and assult virtual humans.

    And no i'm not a prude I loved VICE CITY, that was done right, tounge in cheek, humour in spades and it had a soul (and no tearing).

  • Darren #37 6 years ago

    @Penhalion - Thanks for telling my about the firmware fix but I actually know about it as I bought my TV last May and installed the firmware update in September as soon as Samsung offered it to the public.

    Thus, the tearing I'm seeing in many Xbox 360 games is a result of the way the games are coded and nothing to do with the TV. The Samsung HDTV problem was a refresh rate issue and wasn't the same kind of tearing anyway, it was more like a ripple that moved quickly down the screen intermittently and it used to irritate me when I played MotoGP 3 or Tony Hawk's Underground 2 on the Xbox via component video. However, since the firmware update this "ripple" has disappeared from every game that had it.

  • cyacomini #38 6 years ago

    The main issue with GTA inspired games is that as with the entire GTA serious (apart from the 2D ones of course) is that you either Love them or Hate them. There is no middle ground.

    I for one have never understood why GTA received so much acclaim - I for one thought there were pish awful.

    Not my thing - does this mean I should slag off Saints Row left right and centre ? No. If your not in to this type of game, don't buy it !



  • sharpfish #39 6 years ago

    cyacomini > Many, many people who DO like GTA games are not warming to Saints Row because it's a poor implementation (+ tearing) ;) . So there is no point being captain obvious re: "If you don't like this kind of game, don't buy it", I think we all have enough basic brain power to fathom that one out for ourselves.

    It's even more obvious to say "if you don't like crap games, don't buy them" and that covers the issue much more clearly. Saints Row is crap*, GTA isn't.

    Of course there are those that don't like this kind of game anyway (and probably don't like GTA either) they are still free to say this game is crap due to its technical faults and copy cat, uninspired, cliched humdrum bollox regardless of whether they like or hate the genre. In fact even if GTA had never existed this game is still poor.





    * and has headache inducing tearing which I'm fed up of seeing on supposed "next gen" games.

  • Inflatable #40 6 years ago

    THQ is on a roll.. I'm probably gonna buy Saints Row because I had so much fun with the demo on my 360, and now I also just played the PC demo of the THQ's RTS game Company of Heroes which was awesome aswell.. So it looks like my next 2 games will be THQ games, well done!