Phases 8-9

This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Saints Row (2006).

2006#

???#

Writing The Story#

In the ending cutscene, "Salting The Earth", Julius was supposed to be shown running down an alleyway, but the motion-capture actor was bored and had him walk away looking at his (non-existent) wristwatch instead. When asked if someone else other than Julius was planned to set the bomb on the yacht, it was always the original plan as Steve Jaros was thinking about Saints Row 2 being a flashback to 1970s about Benjamin King and Julius.¹

Spring#

Pre-E3 2006 Builds#

Watch on YouTubeThe following footage was posted by GameSpot at E3 2006 except that the footage shown in the build doesn't match up. In fact, two different builds are shown as evident by the different minimaps. Some of the footage would be reused for the Behind The Scenes video.

The following differences from the first build, with the gauge-like HUD:

The minimap appears to disappear, suggesting that Stilwater was being reworked at that point of development.
The default Playa preset was different.
Customization options were selected from a drop-down list, rather than an arrow scroll in the final.

The second build, with the finalized Tattoo themed HUD;

The HUD almost matches that of the final, except for the prominence of the health symbol resembling the Red Cross. Similar to how other pieces of media has the symbol removed, this was obviously changed in the final.
The ransom money have additional digits applied to the counter, and was lower than the final. The lowest Hostage money amount given by pedestrians in the final is $500.
The Do-rag was spelt as "Doo Rag".
The chunk of the Bridge leading to Filmore from Saints Row is strangely missing, likely because it wasn't loaded or was undergoing a small rework.
Paint in vehicle customization was originally selected via a scrolling list, rather than an expansive color palette.
There were no money sound effects when Playa gets hit in Insurance Fraud.
Bonuses for Insuarance Fraud were displayed on the bottom screen, which would be moved to the top-left side in the final.
Encanto originally had the cut "trainyard" on the minimap despite the location being finalized as the Barrio.

April#

MSXBOX World Interview#

An interview was held with Jacques Hennequet on April 11, 2006.

The Barrio and Chinatown neighborhoods are mentioned for the first time in any prerelease media.
It was revealed that they didn't want to penalize players for making their character obese in order to avoid any sort of movement changes based on their weight.
They mentioned that "about twenty weapons" would be in the game but in the final, there are a total of 25 weapons, including the unlockables.
When robbing a store, Hennequet mentioned that NPCs would rush out of the store and call the Police, but in the final, they're always cowering in fear, and the Notoriety meter rises on their own.
It was confirmed that the game was rated by the ESRB at this point during the interview.
The interview mentioned that there are 13 Activities in the game, but there are only 11. Though Theft was obviously one of the cut choices as evidenced by other prerelease and unused content, it is unknown what the other is.

(Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20060614094256/http://www.msxbox-world.com/xbox/features/article/173/SAINTS-ROW-QA-with-Jacques-Hennequet-of-Volition.html)

May#

E3 2006#

Held from May 10-12.

Gamekult.com Coverage	Micromania Coverage	Booth Footage
Watch on YouTube	Watch on YouTube	Watch on YouTube

Peggy, the girl in the "...But It Sure Is Fun" cutscene of Saints Row Snatch originally had red hair rather than blue in the final game.
The Westside Rollerz Notoriety color was originally lavender than blue. It was likely changed for being too similar to the Third Street Saints' gang color. This is unusually inconsistent considering that the Pre-E3 2006 builds had the blue Notoriety color.