At the Electronic Entertainment Expo this month, Nintendo announced a smorgasbord of first- and third-party titles for its upcoming portable, the 3DS. Among the lineup was Saints Row: Drive By, a new installment in THQ's open-world crime series. Today, the publisher revealed a version of the felonious offering will also commit offenses on Xbox Live Arcade. The Saints will come marching onto Xbox Live before Saints Row 3 goes on sale.

　　As hinted at earlier in the week by THQ core games vice president Danny Bilson, the XBLA version of Drive By will feature connectivity with Saints Row 3. The executive told CVG the game, which remains unpriced, is part of a larger effort to build enthusiasm around Saints Row 3 prior to its release sometime before March 2012.

　　"We haven't announced any of this yet, exactly. But it's all part of the plan leading [up] to Saint's Row 3, and all of the games connected. So if you play one, it unlocks stuff in the big game and back and forth and all that stuff," Bilson said. He also said a 3D version was in development, but it has apparently been scrapped.

　　Saints Row: Drive By will go on sale alongside the 3DS, most likely next year.