Saints Row is a series of action-adventure video games created by Volition and published by THQ and Deep Silver. The series follows the 3rd Street Saints, a fictional street gang originally operating out of the Saints Row district, hence the series' title. Gameplay in the Saints Row games focuses on an open world where the player can complete missions to progress an overall story, as well as engage in various side activities. Most of the gameplay revolves around driving and shooting, with occasional role-playing elements. Due to early entries being labeled as Grand Theft Auto clones, the developers sought to create a more distinctive experience from the third game onwards, with a heavy focus on over-the-top gameplay, popular culture homages, parodies, and self-referential humor; these changes have been controversial among fans of the first two games. The first four games in the Saints Row series were set primarily in two fictional locales—Stilwater and Steelport—which are loosely based on real American cities. The games center on an initially unnamed player-created character (later nicknamed "the Boss") who joins the 3rd Street Saints by chance and helps them defeat enemy gangs in citywide turf wars. Later in the sequels, the player becomes the gang's leader, a celebrity and pop culture icon, and eventually president of the United States, while facing more powerful enemies, such as a major corporation, an anti-gang paramilitary, and an alien empire. Work on the original Saints Row began in 2003, after Volition's completion of Red Faction II. The game was released in August 2006. The sequel, Saints Row 2, was released in October 2008. The series' third entry, Saints Row: The Third, was released in November 2011 and was the final Saints Row video game to be published by THQ before Deep Silver acquired the rights to series in 2013. The series' fourth entry, Saints Row IV, was released in August 2013, with a standalone expansion called Gat out of Hell released in January 2015 in North America and Europe. As of September 2013, the series has had sales in excess of 13 million, making it one of the best-selling video game franchises of all-time. A reboot of the franchise, titled Saints Row, was announced in August 2021 and released in August 2022. The reboot takes place in the fictional city of Santo Ileso in the American southwest, and follows a new gang, simply called The Saints, as they attempt to take control of the city from the different gangs ruling it. The reboot did not fare well, and as part of a reorganization within Volition's parent company, Embracer Group, Volition was shut down in August 2023 with the Saints Row and other Volition IP being transferred to Plaion, also under Embracer Group.