Saints Row Reboot is turning out to be a daunting prospect for the Embracer Group. Despite the game costing a wobbling amount of almost 100 million dollars, it failed to impress the gaming community.
In light of Embracer 2022’s 3rd Quarter earnings report, the amortization of game development costs for titles was released at a loss, and Saints Row Reboot is also on this list. According to the report, profitability in PC/Console was subpar from October to December.
The company released games worth approximately $160 million between July and September of last year. Given the production values of the other games besides Saints Row, the facts estimate that the production of Saints Row Reboot alone cost around $100 million.
Despite the astronomical development costs associated with the poor reception, the game was profitable for the company. It’s worth mentioning, however that Saints Row Reboot had to sell 2 million copies just to break even the development cost.
We’ll see how this translates into the future of the brand, which is probably past its prime. However, Embracer and Deep Silver acknowledge that the reboot underperformed, with a poor return on investment.
Embracer Group appears to have taken note of this experience and is now planning to change its approach to new project approvals. The company is now aware that it must prioritize quality and provide unique, positive player experiences.
In a recent statement from the company, it was made clear that from now on, each project has to earn its right to exist. Although there was no explicit mention of the Saints Row Reboot, the series’ future remains uncertain. Here’s the statement released by the developers:
We have increased management focus and efforts to optimize investments and efficiency across the group even further. To simplify, each project has to earn its right to exist, which means we will increase our efforts to put quality first even further and make sure we create unique positive player experiences.
Whatever the future holds, Embracer Group is determined to stay on track and raise its standards for the benefit of the gaming community.
