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.

Over on Twitter (or X or whatever) Mat Piscatella, executive director at Circana (formerly NPD), shared the most played games on Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam in September. At the top of both consoles was, unsurprisingly, Fortnite. But the most interesting game to appear on the list is Saints Row on PlayStation, which leaped from the 93 most-played games on PSN to the top five.

As pointed out by Piscatella, the reason for this huge leap in popularity is simple: It was included in September’s PS Plus free monthly games lineup. It should be noted that the other two games that were included in the PS Plus lineup last month—Generation Zero and Black Desert—are nowhere to be seen in Circana’s top 10 list. This seems to indicate that a lot of people were curious about Saints Row, but bad reviews likely kept them away. But when the game was made free to play, a whole bunch of players leaped at the chance to download and check out this latest entry in the popular series.

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.

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Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski thinks the series needs to be rebooted and get the same treatment Sony gave God of War in 2018. And he’s willing to help consult on that theoretical reboot if it happens. For Gears fans who haven’t had a new game in the main series for nearly four years, that might sound like a tempting offer.

The original Gears of War and its two sequels were developed by Epic and released between 2006 and 2011 on the Xbox 360. (A spin-off, Judgement, was co-developed by Epic and then-subsidiary studio People Can Fly and released in 2013.) The third-person cover shooters featuring big dudes with chainsaw guns fighting weird bug-people was one of Xbox’s biggest franchises. However, after the original Xbox 360 trilogy and spin-off, Epic went off to do Fortnite and Microsoft created a whole new studio, The Coalition, which took over the series, developed two more sequels, and helped with some spin-offs.

And while many assume a sixth game is coming, eventually, the last main entry—Gears 5—was released in September 2019. The game reviewed well and even outsold Gears of War 4. Since then, we’ve not heard any official word about a Gears of War 6 and now the franchise’s creator thinks it’s time to press the reset button.

In a recent interview with Comicbook.com, Bleszinski was asked if he would ever return to the world of Gears of War, maybe to write a new story for a possible comic book set in the universe. Bleszinski seemed open to coming back to help, but suggested partially rebooting the game franchise instead.

“I believe [Gears of War] needs a little bit of a reboot, like God of War had,” Bleszinski said. “And I’ve always said, [Xbox Boss] Phil Spencer has my number, I’m happy to consult. Gears will always be near and dear to my heart.”

Bleszinski further added that, after drinking a mimosa or two, he sometimes goes on YouTube and rewatches “key cut scenes” from past Gears of War games, including the scene where (spoilers for Gears of War 3) Dom sacrifices himself to save the rest of the squad.

“Reading the comments on those cut scenes from Gears of War when Dom dies, people are like, ‘I had to put the controller down, my friend and I just sat there silenced and stunned.’ For people to actually get tattoos of something that you made on their bodies is the most flattering thing.”

The Gears of War creator also explained that one of the things he’s creatively most proud of is his decision to kill off Dom, who he called a broken man who needed to go out with a meaningful sacrifice.

“It’s just become, in my opinion, one of the most powerful scenes in gaming history,” Bleszinski said. “I’m so very, very proud of it. Just to know that I reached through that screen and that controller and could affect people in a good way and make a lot of them just stop and even tear up means the fucking world to me. Gears Nation, I’ll always love you guys.”

When the interviewer mentioned to Bleszinski that he was 10 years old when he played Gears of War 3 and Dom’s death was the first scene in a video game to ever make him cry, the Gears creator was touched and responded: “That means a fucking lot to me, even though I’m wearing a shirt that says, ‘I eat ass’ in Japanese.”

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