PS3 might be getting a break!

Today THQ has announced that an award-winning game---Saints Row---will be coming to the Playstation 3. The company states that they are aiming for a Spring release date. The game, originally released for the Xbox 360, has been criticized by some detractors as a Grand Theft Auto copycat. While the general consensus among reviewers is that Saints Row does do everything GTA does, it does many of the things that GTA did wrong...right. The result is a game that while perhaps not as innovative as Rockstar's ground-breaking franchise, still has the power to attract console gamers with it's quality of gameplay and design improvements.

THQ used the same dev studio that helped produce the impressively unconventional Descent as part of Parallax Software, and had this to say about the game:

Developed by renowned internal studio Volition, Inc., Saints Row brings the hugely popular open-world genre to Sony's new console for the first time and will mark the first open world online experience available through the PLAYSTATION(R) Network.

Kelly Flock, the executive vice president, also commented that

"Bringing the open-world genre to the PLAYSTATION 3 system for the first time will help grow the Saints Row fan base and expand the open-world online community."

These statements are what those of us in the gaming world call "misleading", and will undoubtedly by some be referred to as "lies", although we doubt they were intended as such. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is widely considered to be the first open-world game that has been released on the PS3, and there are other titles available for the PS3 that fall into the open-world genre. That being said, Saints Row will be the first open-world game for PS3 to feature a multiplayer mode for online play, so the quotes are only mildly inaccurate.

THQ lauds Volition, Inc. as

"...one of THQ's premier internal game development studios responsible for high-end creations on next generation systems and Windows PC. Its credits include best-selling console and PC franchises, including Saints Row, The Punisher, Red Faction(R), Summoner(R) and Freespace as well as the award-winning Descent as a part of Parallax Software."

Hopefully this will give the PS3 the credit it deserves. Full story here.