Der var lidt for meget fokus på pornostjerner i markedsføringen af de to forrige Saints Row-spil. Det mener udvikleren Volition, der står bag serien.
I et interview med Edge fortæller Kate Nelson fra Volition om sin holding til THQ's fokus på porno i markedsføringen af de to spil.
"I did not always love how much THQ put an emphasis on porn stars. In Saints Row 2 and Saints Row 3 there was an emphasis on the penthouse girls, and earlier Tera Patrick. I think it's important in marketing games to make sure that the essence of the game is what's being marketed, and I think the porn star angle didn't really fit in with what Saints Row is at heart, which is a parody. We like to poke fun".
Ifølge Nelson var de ansatte hos Volition heller ikke vilde med, at førnænvte Tera Patrick blev nævnt som "special producer" af THQ.
"Saying that someone who had no industry experience was in a role that is sexualised as a producer of our project, or saying the penthouse girls are our QA staff - I just...I can see the humour in that angle of promotion but for me that's the line where it gets into reality", siger Nelson.
Samtidigt mener Nelson, at det kommende Saints Row IV er mere progressivt i måden kvinder portrætteres i spillet:
"You can be large woman, a small woman - you can be blue. You can be who you want to be in the game and you have powerful female characters written into the narrative."
"I think our game actually does represent women in a positive way, but the press will focus on, oh hey, there are strippers, or there's a dildo bat - it's unfortunate from my perspective that that doesn't come through".