Saints Row dev on THQ marketing campaign

With Saints Row IV on the horizon, Volition has been out and about talking about their franchise.

In a recent interview with Edge, Volition's Kate Nelson has been talking about the advertising campaign for Saints Row: The Third, in particular her feelings on the way former publisher THQ used porn stars to market the game.

"I did not always love how much THQ put an emphasis on porn stars," said the associate producer. "In Saints Row 2 and Saints Row 3 there was an emphasis on the penthouse girls, and earlier Tera Patrick. I think it's important in marketing games to make sure that the essence of the game is what's being marketed, and I think the porn star angle didn't really fit in with what Saints Row is at heart, which is a parody. We like to poke fun."

According to Nelson, some of the staffers at Volition "didn't appreciate" the aforementioned Tera Patrick being listed as ‘special producer' in the promotion by THQ.

"Saying that someone who had no industry experience was in a role that is sexualised as a producer of our project, or saying the penthouse girls are our QA staff - I just...I can see the humour in that angle of promotion but for me that's the line where it gets into reality," said Nelson.

On the other side of the arguement, Nelson points at the Saints Row IV is more progressive in its portrayal of women than previous games: "You can be large woman, a small woman - you can be blue. You can be who you want to be in the game and you have powerful female characters written into the narrative."

"I think our game actually does represent women in a positive way, but the press will focus on, oh hey, there are strippers, or there's a dildo bat - it's unfortunate from my perspective that that doesn't come through."

Saints Row IV is coming to Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on August 23.