Saints Row 4 not next-gen due to Volition's experience on Summoner

PS2 launch title Summoner put Volition Inc off ever rushing to meet a console launch deadline ever again.

IGN asked Volition's Jim Boone why Saints Row 4 hadn't been produced for next-generation hardware. The answer is partly timing and partly hard-won experience.

"We’d been working on [Saint's Row 4] for a little while and hearing the rumours about the timeline the new consoles might come out, but we didn’t know for sure," he said.

"The big thing for us was, we wanted to make sure we had time to do the game right. Going back in our history, we did Summoner way back in the day as a launch title for PS2 and it was hard. We were able to do it but it was brutal. There were things we had to rush as we just didn’t have time to polish."

Boone said Volition never even considered making the first Saints Row an Xbox 360 launch title, despite the good timing.

"We'd learnt from our past and weren’t about to pump the game out and cut corners," he said.

"That’s why with Saint's Row IV we didn’t want to do the thing we did with Summoner. Saints Row 1 was the blueprint: doing what’s right for the game rather than rushing to get something out."

Elsewhere in the interview, Boone said Volition isn't sure what it's next project is; it's relationship with new owner Koch Media is still finding its feet.'

Saints Row 4 is due on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on August 20 in North America and on August 23 in Europe.