Saints Row IV launch into the Australian territory has been problematic to say the least. First there were the classification issues, then came the delays. Today the games’s Australian distributer All Interactive Entertainment released a statement in an attempt to explain the delay, and offered Australian gamers who pre-ordered Saints Row IV free DLC as a peace offering.
According to the statement, “every effort” was made to keep the release process in line with the rest of the world, but the “production process meant that a delay was unavoidable”. It’s not explicitly stated, but we can only assume that the production delay was the result of Australia receiving a slightly modified version of the game as a result of the Classification Board refusing the game classification twice.
“Australian fans of Saints Row IV will obviously be disappointed with this delay,” said Robert Kingston, Director at All Interactive Entertainment. “We have used every means at our disposal to minimise the delay, but unfortunately it just was not possible to keep the same street date as the rest of the world.”
As a result of the delay All Interactive Entertainment has offered gamers who free pre-order and pick up the game 48 hours after launch a free Presidential Pack DLC code in an attempt to make things right. The Presidential Pack contains multiple different President outfits, allowing players to dress as some of America’s most famous Presidents.
AIE has confirmed that the game will now launch on September 12.
Comments
68 responses to “AIE Apologises For Saints Row IV Delay, Offers Free DLC In Return”
Not bad for a ‘sorry’. The pack does look pretty neat. I’m sure it’s not a world ending situation. Either way I’ll sure enjoy GTA V!
Sorry SR4 you’re gonna have to wait a little bit longer unfortunately 🙁 but I WILL get around to you! Promise!
I honestly thought you meant ‘Academy of Interactive Entertainment’ by the acronym of AIE.
Same I was like huh? As I study there and hadn’t heard anything of AIE to do with it xD.
if the dlc came with a butt raping gun and an extra shundi side mission with alien drugs it would be better. I just cant understand how people could play this game without their brain constantly saying how they are missing out on stuff everyone else is getting……..I could not do it
You’re upset about the fact that your right to a “butt raping gun” has been taken away.
Do you realise how fucking insane that sounds?
Plus, the anal probe is in the Australian version.
I love that kotaku commenters get outraged about an anal probe gun while they were ready to fight to the death to defend their Dead Island mutilated corpse of a busty girl statuette. THAT is what is insane.
Kotaku commenters aren’t a single entity.
I was disgusted by both the anal probe gun and that stupid mutilated torso statue.
Serious question now, would people have been as offended had that been a males torso?
The thing I didn’t like about that torso was they made it look like Pamela Lee, all ugly silicone looking etc. Looked terrible. That and it was an uber tacky collectible. Much would’ve preferred a recreated scaled down weapon from the game such as ‘the ripper’.
I would still have thought it was tacky and still not have bought it, but the fact that it was heavily sexualised made it worse- it was juvenile and really didn’t think through the broader implication of what they were saying.
I have no real desire to purchase severed anything to proudly display on the mantle.
A fair point. Don’t know how they really thought they’d do it? When you look at it, it looks like a male torso with two really bad breasts thrown onto it. *shrug* But I agree with your points none the less.
In a videogame? Yeah, I have a problem with that.
It’s the principle that counts mate, not the fact that I’m deprived of my right to enjoy a butt-raping gun. When you dumb it down like that you make it sound as though we’re foaming at the mouth because we don’t get to use a butt-raping gun. That is not the case. Personally, I have a problem with the fact that my government thinks I’m responsible enough to drink, drive, and go overseas and shoot people for them, yet apparently as soon as something remotely offensive pops up in my video games, I’m not responsible enough to view this stuff without telling the difference between fiction and reality. If you don’t want a butt-raping gun then fine, but don’t defend our fucking insane rating system in the process.
Hey now, I agree with you. You should have the right to choose what is fit for your consumption. I just don’t think that a butt raping gun is the pole with which to carry that flag.
Wait, so an ideal is worth defending as long as the particular subject of that ideal doesn’t embarass you? Do you wait for certain races to be targeted before you tell people “descrimination is bad?”
*slow clap, then faster clap then slow clap again, with me getting the last clap in also*
Well said.
Its not that I want the butt rape gun…its more of he fact I know it exists and I know im missing out…….it will just ruin the game becasue I have one of those brains that cant let things like that go…….I mean everyone else in the world can have the Butt rape gun and the shundi mission but We cant??? it would just get to me….I dont even use the stupid guns in saint row games.
GTA4 grated me the same way….every time I ran over a guy my brain would say, “if you lived somewhere else their would be blood marks left by the tires”. It’s the the internets fualt really, if I did not know I was being given the baby version of something I would not care at all……but I do know, so I care.
Your fixation on butt rape guns is something you should perhaps talk to a professional about…
I don’t care about the butt rape gun…I care about missing out on the butt rape gun….and more so the shaundi mission…..its a subtle difference.
I proboly should talk to a professional about many things, but I’m too paranoid and would have to spend the whole session making stuff up so he could not use the information to track me down later……maybe take over my life or something.
Did you even read what he said? He doesn’t care about the Anal probe gun, he cares about missing out on the CHOICE whether to use it or not.
You did realise GTA4 was patched later to be uncut (one good thing that the PC version of GTA4 brought to Australian gamers)
That is why I pirated the game. I’ve been playing it all week. It is as fun as the demo’s show.
Does this count for the Steam version as well?
So to make up for the delay, we get the pre-order DLC that would have been available had it not been delayed?
http://www.trueachievements.com/n14343/lastminute-preorder-bonus-for-saints-row-iv.htm
My thoughts exactly…
So what do the people who pre-ordered it get? A nice pat on the back?
Okay, but did they address the rumours about people who got digital copies from overseas getting the nerfed Australian copy? Because Volition gave me a generic “It’s the ACB’s fault they haven’t given us a rating yet!” excuse.
There’s AusGoons in the Something Awful thread for sr4 confirming that versions gifted from the US (the “row” version) DO work and have the Shaundi mission. I’m not that far into it yet, so haven’t come across her yet (6 hours in and spending more time chasing side missions/data clusters…)
That’s good, but I kind of want a positive confirmation from Volition. Thanks for that though 🙂
It’s there! I played it last night.
How odd. My copy from Canada is still locked…
I doubt their legal team will be happy to let them confirm a way to play a RC version of the game.
Sweeeeeet. Just means if I want to coop with mates I’ll need to get them to get ROW too.
Doesn’t make up for having to wait for my fucking steam pre-order.
Just release that the same day!
I was disappointed when I first received my text about the delay but I’ll be playing the hell out of Saints Row IV so I can experience it as best as I can before GTA V comes out! At least we get a neat DLC pack 🙂
I honestly think this is such a sorry excuse. Games have needed to be edited for Australia before and still released on the same date as the rest of the world.
Those games were RC’ed a bit further away from release, and it was not confirmed this was the (sole) issue. There are any number of reasons why a game could be delayed.
rofl… 5 days before GTA? no thanks
What this article doesn’t mention is that the September 12th date only applies to PC and XBox 360. The PS3 version isn’t coming out until the 19th, TWO DAYS AFTER GTA V RELEASES.
This is straight from All Interactive Entertainments Facebook page.
“SAINTS ROW IV AUSTRALIAN RELEASE DATE CONFIRMED
Australian version available September 12th 2013
We can finally confirm that Saints Row IV will release in Australia slightly later than planned, on September 12th for Windows PC & Xbox 360® games and entertainment system from Microsoft, and September 19th for PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system. Whilst we have done everything we can to minimise the delay, we know Saints Row fans will obviously be disappointed with this news”.
I completely missed the extra delay for the PS3 version… Good thing I cancelled today and ordered a US copy.
American Presidents…? Would have been better to allow us to dress up as Australian Politicians.. ESPECIALLY with the election this close to the new street date 🙂
Then we would have a genuine need for the butt rape gun.
Wait, I got that already for preordering, didn’t I? Or was that different DLC?
Either way, considering my copy is an RoW copy, this sucks balls. If this copy is region locked (censored) even though it’s gifted from the US, I blame Deep Silver, considering L4D2 worked fine.
Yep, you’re completely right – Steam versions of the game (for example) already got access to the Presidential DLC for pre-ordering. Nice job guys! You’ve really done your homework I see! Heck, why don’t you just gift us the game for pre-ordering too?
I just did a VPN to unlock my PC copy (as it is a RoW copy) and then put steam into offline mode before the VPN auto disconnected.
About an hour in. Was worth playing so far (hilarious game) and now I will be done before GTAV and Rome2 come out.
Yeah I’ve been playing it too – US version and it’s hilarious. I’ve stopped pretty early on because I want to finish some other games first before I get invested!
You playing it on PC too?
Yep 🙂
We started playing this today at a mates place, he did the vpn thing, it’s fantastic. Was worried it would just feel like an expansion but nope, feels like a natural continuation.
Best way to describe this game? THE SAINTRIX.
Yeah, just the opening was awesome – I continue to laugh each time I play through it 😛
Indeed. Im amazed theyve made it feel so fresh. The superpowers are so good!
Agreed. It is not some repackaged DLC and the beginning just starts off so well. It draws you in with such hilarity.
Been sidetracked from the main plot by *so many sidemissions*. So much to do its almost ridiculous!
If it’s anything like the Saints Row 3 DLC packs that made you OP as all living hell from the beginning of the game, then no thanks.
You guys are probably going to hate me for this but, I really don’t think Saints Row is a great game. It’s a fun toy, but it’s broken and not balanced by any stretch of the imagination.
The first two were good, the third one went a little too silly for me but I held on and had fun……This one seems like they have gone all out on the silly so I dont know if I will buy it, I might wait and see if it comes onto playstation plus for free in a few months.
My thoughts exactly, they’ve just gone utterly stupid with SR4. How do you go from being in a street gang taking over the city, to being the president with super powers dealing with an alien invasion.
I’m not saying that it won’t be a fun game, and I’ll probably pick it up at some point. But as far as I’m concerned they should have slapped a new name on it (like Ultrastupidsuperhappyfuntime) or some other equally stupid name and made it a new IP because it just doesn’t feel like Saints Row anymore.
He is stuck in virtual reality. The characters don’t get actual super powers.
The game is fun to play and very funny.
Because videogame. That’s how.
Touché
Yeah it’s just gone stupid. It’s nothing like the original anymore, and just so the devs know; thats a BAD thing.
If you want to make a game about rediculousness, do it, but don’t put the name Saints Row on it. It has no similarity to the original with the exception of the excessive use of purple.
I’m sort of inclined to agree it’s not balanced, but I think one of the things I like about it the series is it seemed to embrace its warts and brokenness in interesting ways. It also managed to create some fairly interesting characters as well, which is really surprising all considering.
Yeah, I loved the Asian dude. He was so cool. So annoyed they killed him.
I swear the best humour is the kind that throws political correctness out the window.
I still don’t understand why this has to delay the steam digital copies, I know they prefer to have the releases at the same time but why make people wait when they don’t have to.
…I’m still getting it from the states that week, un-ruined. and a friend at a Gamestop Store said those DLC cards are in-store in a massive pile beyond their pre-order numbers so i’ll still get that free. silly Australia.
Too late, already got a steam key from amazon and used a VPN.
Worst part about the delay is the steam locking when you buy the game from over seas so even though my friends are playing i cant
This! It only preloaded, but when it was done, it stayed locked.
To be honest guys. The anal probe is crap. The tentacle bat however is AWESOME.
Man I Hope Obama, Clinton, Nixon, JFK, Reagan and Bush are presidents you can dress up as
it seems to me that the Classification Board’s problem is not the perceived virtual violence of the game – but how blissfully ignorant the Australian public are to the reality of violent crime, terrorism, and civil war in other parts of the world.
Perhaps we need more perspective – and less ivory-tower bureaucrats – to realise that the real world is a far more violent & scarier place than a video game, and we should focus more resources & efforts away from classification & censorship – and more on making the world a better place…
The nerfed coop is going to be a major issue that could well spell the death of the franchise in Australia, Especially when GTA V & it’s vastly superior multiplayer mode (and most importantly it is unnerfed since it has obtained an R rating in Australia) is released on PC.