Saints Row, Warhammer 40K series sales top 6 million

When the first Saints Row launched in 2006, it was the first Grand Theft Auto-style game for the current generation of consoles. Though not as highly rated as Rockstar's open-world games, Saints Row and its 2008 sequel, Saints Row 2, both were also critically praised and solid sellers in their own right.

Just how solid was revealed today at the Kaufman Brothers 13th Annual Investor Conference by THQ executive vice president and CFO Paul Pucino. The executive said that, to date, some 3.4 million copies of Saints Row 2 had been sold, bringing the franchise total to 6 million units. That number is a mere fraction of Grand Theft Auto IV's 17 million units in sales but still qualifies as a hit series. However, it is unclear whether that figure includes just the two games or also the various expansion packs for Saints Row 2.

Saints Row 3 is due out in fall 2011, several months after the launch of another of THQ's 2011 tent-pole titles, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. That action game will be the latest installment in the tabletop wargame-inspired franchise, which Pucino revealed has also sold over 6 million units to date. Those games include the real-time strategy titles Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II and its various expansions, including March's highly rated Chaos Rising.

THQ has held the Warhammer 40,000 license since 2001 and has big plans for it in the coming years. Besides the Retribution expansion pack and Dawn of War III, the company is also building a massively multiplayer title, Warhammer 40,000 Online: Dark Millennium. Announced in February 2007, the title is being developed by Vigil Games, the Austin, Texas-based studio behind last month's well-received Darksiders.