Saints Row 2 Rerelease

This is not really a news but I consider this is the end of the line. I consider this project is completely inactive and is "on hold indefinitely".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhB4sVtPUJ8

Today marks the 5 year anniversary since Volition has announced SR2 PC Patch/Rerelease project on their YouTube live stream in 2019. It is also 1 year + about 1.8 months after Volition's shutdown in 2023.

There is no evidence of SR2 PC Patch/Rerelease (aka "Saints Row 2: ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Edition" or "Project: Mjolnir") is still in development or will come out in any foreseeable future. I can say this project is cancelled, or in a corporate speak "on hold indefinitely".

Deep Silver/Plaion/Embracer Group will never officially admit the cancellation because SR2 PC Patch is technically an "already-announced" project. They have no problem with cancelling "unannounced" projects, but Embracer Group is a publicly-traded company and cancelling a project already known to public will hurt Embracer's stock value so they won't do it.

IdolNinja said he'll "make sure it gets finished without me" but whatever he did, it's clear his plan didn't work.

=== History ===

SR2 PC Patch/Rerelease was a two-man team project. One member was Mike "IdolNinja" Watson and the other was Thomas "Minimaul" Jepp.

Minimaul overestimated his ability and stalled the project in the beginning, and didn't really fix many of SR2's existing bugs even though he claimed he did fix them. (More)

After Minimaul bailed out, it became IdolNinja's solo project, Afterwards no one helped IdolNinja. Volition and Deep Silver prioritized the Saints Row Reboot (2022) over SR2 Patch. Then IdolNinja died to cancer. There was no one working for the SR2 Patch project.

Outside of this tweet by IdolNinja which contained a screenshot and Patch Progress PDF shared to testers[archive.org] (note Minimaul lied about progress), Volition or Deep Silver never shared any footage, progress report, or additional screenshots.

SR2022 got released. It bombed.

Embracer Group had financial troubles after their deal with Saudi Arabia's Savvy Games went awry, so Embracer had to cut cost. Volition was an easy and obvious place to cut. Volition was shutdown at the end of August 2023.

One year after Volition's death, there is no official statements regarding SR2 Patch project status from Deep Silver or Embracer. There is also no evidence or rumor of the project got handed to any of Embracer-related studios or got outsourced to outside companies.

Starting from 2025, Embracer will split up into three different companies. In their announcement[embracer.com], Saints Row is not mentioned anywhere, unlike many of their previous press-releases. This implies they don't see Saints Row IP as valuable as they used to be, and they are likely abandoning it.

=== Are there any future to Saints Row 2 for PC? ===

From the official IP holders and studios, no, there is no future.

According to Embracer's March 2024 earnings report[www.videogameschronicle.com], "Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection" met Embracer's expectations (despite mixed reception from players and critics) and "Tomb Raider I-III Remastered" exceeded expectations, unlike their new games "Alone in the Dark" Reboot and "Outcast: A New Beginning" which both underperformed. Remasters sell well, but I cannot see Embracer will do a proper port or remaster of SR2 due to the toxic nature of this franchise.

Volition and Deep Silver wasted $100 million[x.com] to SR2022, and it sold only 1.7 million units[www.videogameschronicle.com] which is a huge flop compared to Saints Row 2's 3.4 million units (SR2 was also probably made with much smaller budget). It is unlikely Embracer is willing to take more risks and pour more money to this IP, even for simple ports and remasters.

Volition and Deep Silver also have Deep Hatred against OG Saints Row games and its fans[www.neogaf.com]. They are unwilling to make Saints Row return to its roots. Saints Row 1 and 2 are incompatible with Deep Silver's mind and vision.

The only hope I currently have is someone inside or a former employee of Embracer leaking SR2 PC Source Code to somewhere public.
Fans have been able to improve performance and add additional features to PC SR2 with Juiced Patch[kobraworks.com] which was created by heavy amount of research and reverse engineering. If SR2 PC Source Code gets leaked, fans will be able to fix and improve this game at much deeper level. We previously got miracles like Duke Nukem Forever 2001 leak, and I hope something will happen to SR2 as well.

NOTE: If you are an employee/former employee of Volition or an Embracer-related company, and you have a stuff you want to leak or want to tell a behind-the-scenes story, please contact a moderator of r/GamingLeaksAndRumours or someone at Hidden Palace[hiddenpalace.org]. Thank you in advance for your contribution.

=== Emulating SR2 ===

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rJ2gXyD73U

SR2 is playable in a Xbox 360 emulator "Xenia Canary" with better stability and audio quality than PC port. A 60FPS patch is floating around and reportedly someone also got the DLCs working. This is a way to play Saints Row 2 on a PC in the closest form the original developers envisioned. The downsides are less mod availability and no native Keyboard&Mouse controls.