Watch PS Plus Bring A Dead Game Back To Life

An image shows a zombie hand rising out from a grave holding a PSN Plus icon next to Saint's Row.
An image shows a zombie hand rising out from a grave holding a PSN Plus icon next to Saint's Row.

Want to see a magic trick? All you need is an open-world video game that flopped at launch and a popular subscription service with millions of gamers. And presto, you can bring a “dead” game like Saints Row (2022) back to life and make it one of the most played games on PlayStation.

Personally, I enjoyed the Saints Row reboot. However, I understand that I’m in the minority of players who felt that way, and most folks, including critics and longtime fans, found the 2022 open-world crime sim to be an empty shell devoid of the personality and charm found in the previous, much-beloved entries. The game, which launched with numerous bugs and issues, reportedly missed internal sales goals. Volition, the studio behind the seriest, was shut down earlier this year following the game’s release and some bad financial news from its parent company, Embracer. And yet, according to new data, Saints Row (2022) was the fourth most-played game on PlayStation in September thanks to a PS Plus giveaway.

Read more

Now, how many of them finished the game or put any real time into it is unknown. But at the very least it seems that putting the game on PS Plus helped bring it back from the dead and potentially led to some DLC sales.

This is an example of how these subscription services can be used by publishers to revitalize older or less successful games with an audience of subscribers hungry for big AAA games, even the less-than-great ones. In completely, totally unrelated news, hey look over there, Gotham Knights was just added to Game Pass, recently.

 .

More from Kotaku

Sign up for Kotaku's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.