First look at Saint's Row 3 coming in December

Saints Row 3 missed being shown at E3 this year in order for the developers to get it ready for its first showing in December.

Speaking during an analyst meeting at E3, THQ's core games VP Danny Bilson told attendees that the game will be shown for the first time during the VGAs in December.

"I'm not going to show it to you today," he said (via CVG). "This is the only room we're talking about Saints Row 3. We're not showing it on the floor because the rollout starts in December on Saints Row 3.

"We've spent an extra year rebuilding the technology for this game. It is absolutely gorgeous and still completely insane.

"We're also going to have a collectible card game, we're going to have books, we're going to have merchandise - we're going to build this thing out into the biggest trans-media blowout ever seen.

"Most of these deals are already in place. I believe we're going to announce this at the Spike awards in December.

"It's really, really exciting what's going on with Saint's Row and when we launch this it's really going to turn heads to what we've done with this brand.

"Saints Row is going to be a monster for us."

Bilson also confirmed that a Saint's Row film is in the works, will launch in theaters the same day as the game, and has a "major filmmaker" attached to it (via Gamespot).

Saint's Row 3 is slated for release in 2012.