Development
Work began on Saints Row 2 in 2005, about a year before Saints Row was released. Unlike Saints Row, the game is not an Xbox 360-exclusive title; the game was developed for the PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows systems. Saints Row did have a PlayStation 3 port of the game in development alongside Saints Row 2, but it was later cancelled. Despite having a general idea of the technological capabilities of the PlayStation 3, developers still found this development process a challenge. The game was first announced by THQ's CEO Brian Farrell in late February 2007 in a conference call, alongside the announcement of six other THQ-owned franchise continuations for the 2008 fiscal year. In early May 2007, THQ's executive vice president of worldwide publishing said that "The original Saints Row gained critical acclaim The game's worldwide success shows the growing fanaticism for open-world gaming and our talented team at Volition is now using their proprietary technology to revolutionise the genre yet again". On May 14, 2007, THQ's CFO Edward K. Zinser confirmed this at a conference call. A PlayStation 3 port of the original was scrapped to focus resources on Saints Row 2. First details of the game began to surface in May 2008 after the launch of the first teaser trailer, with game aggregators like IGN and GameSpot getting a first look at an early build of the game. The official website launched in late May 2008 and a short teaser for the game was unveiled.
On April 3, 2008, THQ set the release date for August 28, 2008 and the game was then made available to pre-order from various retailers; in addition, the website underwent an overhaul. On May 28, THQ announced that Saints Row 2's release would be pushed back by about two months, from August 28 to October 14, 2008 in the U.S. Senior vice president of marketing Bob Aniello told Reuters that "product quality is a huge driver of a game's success and this move allows us to polish the game. There is a bigger trend within the industry to build big marketing events within a bigger time window. This allows us to lead up to the holiday timeframe". To coincide with the heavy promotion and sponsorship of the game, the official website and community page were launched on July 15, 2008. This was the third website redesign since it was first announced and the old forums site (developer.saintsrow.com) was redirected and renamed "The Row Community". On July 23, 2008, it was revealed that the game had passed the OFLC classification body without having to be edited and was given an MA15+ rating with a release date set for October 16.
Read more about this topic: Saints Row 2
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