Editing Saints Row (2022) (section)

== Development ==
THQ Nordic announced in August 2019 that Volition was developing a full entry in the ''Saints Row'' series. Subsidiary Koch Media, owner of Saints Row, said they were giving the developer time and space to make the game they saw fit. The series had a rocky history in the years prior to the reboot's development. The prior full game in the series was ''Saints Row IV'' (2013) and the standalone expansion ''Saints Row: Gat out of Hell'' (2015). A series spin-off, ''Agents of Mayhem'' (2017), sold poorly and led to layoffs at Volition. ''Saints Row'' was officially announced as a reboot of the franchise at the August 2021 Gamescom, which was met with divided opinion on social media for not retaining the "feel" of prior series entries.

The reboot is intended to pull away from the "wacky" tone of ''Saints Row IV'' and later games in the series, instead bringing back the balance between comedy and seriousness that ''Saints Row: The Third'' had. Volition's Jeremy Bernstein compared ''Saints Row IV'' to ''Moonraker'' of the James Bond films series, having gone so far outside the realm of reality that they need to reel it back in. Studio development director Jim Boone added that the current social climate had outgrown the tone of prior ''Saints Row'' games. Some of the more lewd elements like the giant purple dildo that could be used as a weapon were cut for this reason. The game's developer, Volition, looked to action films as reference points for what they wanted players to experience, including the feel-good vehicular movement of ''Baby Driver'', the brutal, stylized combat of ''John Wick'', and the extravagance of ''Hobbs & Shaw'', "that ''Saints Row'' sort of flavor".

''Saints Row'' was originally set to release on February 25, 2022, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows platforms; however, it was delayed until August 23, 2022. The PC release is exclusive to the Epic Games Store digital marketplace. A post-release expansion pass will include at least three pieces of downloadable content. A pre-order bonus and digital-only special editions include additional cosmetic content.