UPDATE: THQ has clarified that Dominatrix is actually a standalone boxed retail product and not a downloadable title.  I feel better about that.  I'll gladly pay $30 for what may well amount to Saints Row: The Third And A Half.

Even though the episodic expansions for Saints Row: The Third have concluded, new content for the troubled THQ's most recent major title is on the way.  Game Informer has word of a new installment entitled Enter The Dominatrix for the Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, and PC in which the leader of the Third Street Saints (as in, the player character) is abducted by aliens and locked inside a virtual reality recreation of Steelport.  Here's the pitch:

For centuries, alien warlord Zinyak has eyed Earth and its precious natural resources and females with a watchful eye. As he prepares an armada for invasion, he has only one worry: the Third Street Saints.Once a simple street gang from Stilwater, the Saints have evolved into a global empire, replete with bombastic TV advertising and tasteful consumer products, the kind of TV advertising and consumer products that would give any alien warlord pause. Clearly, the Saints are the biggest badasses on Earth.

Now, in order to prepare his forces for domination, Zinyak captures the leader of the Saints and imprisons him in an elaborate virtual reality simulation. This simulation program looks and feels like Steelport, but it is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. Here, you are a slave. Welcome… to the Dominatrix.

Of course, there's a catch.  Enter The Dominatrix is not a downloadable expansion for The Third, but is instead a standalone downloadable title much in the same way that last year's inFamous: Festival of Blood expansion did not actually require inFamous 2 to play.  I wasn't in favor of breaking what is arguably traditional DLC away from the basic game to create a budget-priced mini-episode to lure those on the fence about the main game into trying a small slice of action, but Festival of Blood impressed me enough in the end to be worth the $10 or so that I spent on it.  Dominatrix, on the other hand, is priced at a staggering $29.99.  Now, I bought the Saints Row: The Third season pass and enjoyed all of the DLC it had to offer, but those extra missions were rather short on content in the end.  If this one new expansion costs more than the other three expansions combined, then it had better be just shy of a whole new standalone game.  I trust the team at Volition to get this right, but I'm also aware of THQ's financial woes and its need to bring in some new revenue just as quickly as possible.  Here's hoping that this new content is worth the money and not just a cash grab.  We'll find out when Enter The Dominatrix releases this fall.