Saints Row: The Third Remastered is coming [update: now it's official]

Update: Annnd now it's official, Saints Row: The Third Remastered is coming May 22nd. See some old/new comparisons in the trailer below.

While we still don't know anything about the new Saints Row game that Volition are currently making, thanks to a wee leak we do know that the 3rd Street Saints will revisit an old adventure in Saints Row: The Third Remastered. That name comes via a listing in the Entertainment Software Ratings Board database, an organisation who tend to y'know not just make up games for funsies. Seeing as publishers THQ Nordic haven't yet announced SR3 Remastered, exactly what it changes is unknown - but we can probably guess.

Update: They say it'll have "enhanced graphics, improved lighting, reworked environments, and visual effects" as well as all the DLC. It's coming to the Epic Games Store, so welp I guess a discount for current owners is out.

While Saints Row: The Third first launched in 2011, it has a pretty stylised look which helps with ageing. I wouldn't expect much more than maybe a few higher-resolution textures, perhaps a couple extra polygons, some behind-the-scenes technical fixes and tweaks, and all the DLC bundled in. The ESRB listing says it's coming to Xbone and PS4 as well as PC, and they're probably the main reason to do this because SR3 isn't yet on either console. It coming to PC too is probably just a happy little bonus. That said, hey, I'd be delighted to be proven wrong and for this to be a huge remaster.

THQ Nordic tend to be good with offering remaster-y things either free (like Titan Quest's Anniversary Update) or discounted to current owners. I'd be surprised if that didn't continue here.

SR3 straddles the gap between the comic-yet-cruel crimeworld of SR2 and the full-on megadaftness of SR4 with its alien invasion and superpowers inside The Matrix. It simply tells a humble story of a gang of criminals who are also world-famous celebrities and set out to take over a whole new city while beating down a military task force equipped with hoverbikes and laserplanes. Looking back, I think I'd prefer 2 or 4 depending on whether I wanted a cartoony GTA or a superdaft superhero game. But 3 is still good!

"It's so fundamentally dedicated to being fun that its prehensile penile puerility ends up feeling redundant in the midst of the blaze of silliness and action, and barely noticeable," our former John (RPS in peace) said in his 2011 Saints Row: The Third review.

That next big Saints Row beyond this is a mystery. THQ Nordic said in August 2019 that Volition were "deep in development of a brand-new Saints Row game" but had nothing to say about it, nor any hint of when we might learn more. Well, I suppose it won't be E3 2020, will it?

We do now that Volition have also been working on fixing up Saints Row 2 for modern PCs. Plans for that include "performance improvements, crash fixes, getting multiplayer back up and running, and adding the DLC previously exclusive to consoles. They said this is only a side-project for two folks, mind - and that was before we knew SR3 Remastered was also in the pipeline.