THQ and Volition today announced the Saints Row Initiation Station, allowing players to create, share and download characters for inclusion in the upcoming Saints Row: The Third.

Saints Row Initiation Station Features Outlandish Character Creation

THQ and Volition have announced an interesting teaser for Saints Row: The Third -- a character creator, named the Saints Row Initiation Station.

The Initiation Station allows players to create characters, save them and share them with friends. Downloaded characters can also be modified, and it's apparently possible for friends to collaborate and create duos ready for use in co-op play.

From the sounds of things, there'll be a lot of variations available for players to tweak their characters. THQ give examples of ninjas, pirates, ninja-pirates, naked ninja-pirates, professional athletes, superheroes, cowboys, Indians, dominatrixes, sex slaves and wrestlers.

While it doesn't allow quite the same level of sordid depravity that the Spore Creature Creator brought out in people, it'll certainly be interesting to see what nonsense the community comes out with.

The Saints Row Initiation Station will be available free for Xbox, PS3 and PC "in advance of the release of Saints Row: The Third this holiday," according to THQ, but no date is given. Players who pre-order Red Faction: Armageddon will also get early access to the app -- but only from participating retailers. THQ has confirmed UK retailer Game is taking part in this promotion but didn't list any American outlets.

Source - [GamePro]

I really like this trend. I wasn't a big fan of spore, but I find it great to release a tool allowing such a large audience to create characters. Not that THQ couldn't do it themselves, but everyone knows people can get stuck in the same ideas. I love seeing a large diversity in characters and even better if it's fan made!

I want GG to make another two story baby character. I never laughed so hard before. I'm sitting idle in the street, while he changes his character when he says "PK, turn around". I turn around, and there's this giant bald baby, wearing a diaper and a beanie hat with propeller... and he's running after me. I started laughing and running away as fast as I could. lol