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Saints Row: The Third is on course to become THQ’s most pre-ordered title ever, the publisher has told MCV.
Strong interest in the game has been driven largely by the Professor Genki pre-order campaign.Paying homage to madcap Japanese game shows, the Professor Genki’s Hyper Ordinary Pre-Order Pack gives users access to an in-game cat costume, an octopus gun and a car with a pedestrian-firing cannon.
THQ also confirmed that the Genki pack will be exclusive to retail and will not be available as post-release DLC.
We already have very strong indicators that Saints Row: The Third will be our best pre-order title ever,” UK marketing director Jon Rooke told MCV. Homefront was our last best one, and we are now well ahead of the curve with this title.
Since we’ve started this Genki activity, we’ve seen our rate of pre-orders increase dramatically week-on-week. That’s not a pattern we’ve seen this early in a product before.”
He went on to say that the response to Saints Row suggests it will hold its own against competition from Call of Duty, Battlefield 3, Assassin’s Creed, Need For Speed, Skyrim and more.
We’re in that mix of big established brands,” said Rooke. We want to get consumers talking about Saints now – not wait until September when they have already gone somewhere else.
There’s less cash in consumers’ pockets these days, especially at Christmas. We have to fight for every pound. We think Saints Row is a great product, and with Genki we have a great pre-order campaign to help us cut through. And the signs show that it’s working.”
