THQ ignores analyst's pomposity accusation

THQ has told Eurogamer it has no comment on analyst Mike Hickey's claim that its recent Saints Row 2 trailer parodying Grand Theft Auto IV is "unusually pompous".

"The trailer directly attacks Grand Theft Auto IV in-game content, an unusually pompous position in our view, considering GTA IV is estimated to be the highest grossing first-week entertainment release of all time - and is currently the highest quality scored game on both the Xbox 360 and PS3 according to Metacritic.com," said Hickey, market watcher for Janco Partners (spotted by Gamasutra).

"We remain conservative on our sales expectations for Saints Row 2, in light of mediocre game previews and a delayed release in-part from quality concerns."

Saints Row 2 was pushed back from late August to 17th October recently to give developer Volition more time to polish the game.

The big difference between Saints Row 2 and GTA IV, according to Volition, will be a hyper-realistic and stylised world and, far from being put off by the competition, studio representatives told us at THQ's Gamers Day earlier this year that it wouldn't launch in 2008 if it didn't think the game was competitive. Will it all end in tears?

Head over to our Saints Row 2 preview to find out more. You can also drive by Eurogamer TV for a roundup of all the THQ hopefuls on show at its recent Gamers Day.