Saints Row: The Cooler is a cancelled
fighting game, which was in development for the
Xbox 360 and
PS3. It was being created by
Heavy Iron Studios in Los Angeles and was funded by
THQ.
“It was a brawler game. Go to a bar, pick a fight, smash a bottle over someone’s head” – Former Heavy Iron Studios artist
Work began on the title in
March 2010 at developer, Heavy Iron. In partnership with
THQ, the company sought to create the first
Saints Row game controlled entirely by motion; a ploy to capitalise on the rising industry trend at the time.
Two versions of the game were planned initially: an
XBOX 360 game using Microsoft’s Kinect peripheral and a
PS3 port with Playstation Move support. The
XBOX 360 was the lead development platform for The Cooler, as the team’s creative focus was very much on Kinect.
A team of around
40 people were put on the project, while the rest of the studio was occupied with another Kinect-centric project for
Disney called ‘E-Ticket’.
We were able to get in touch with several people, a mix of both former and current employees at the developer, who shared some details with us on the game’s lifecycle. According to these sources, the title was
a brawler set in the Saint’s Row universe and was, in contrast with the rest of the series,
not an open world game.
Information Source
https://www.unseen64.net/2014/10/13/saints-row-cooler-cancelled-xbox-360-ps3/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu3_7LTNCwa89vg8qftl5nQ
