Saints Row Developer Volition Shut Down - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 31 August 2023 / 2,791 Views
Developer Volition, the developers for the Saints Row franchise, announced via LinkedIn it has been shut down by Embracer Group.
"The Volition team has proudly created world-class entertainment for fans around the globe for 30 years," reads the LinkedIn post from Volition. "We've been driven by a passion for our community and always worked to deliver joy, surprise, and delight.
"This past June, Embracer Group announced a restructuring program to strengthen Embracer and maintain its position as a leader in the video game industry. As part of that program, they evaluated strategic and operational goals and made the difficult decision to close Volition effective immediately.
"To help our team, we are working to provide job assistance and help smooth the transition for our Volition family members. We thank our customers and fans around the world for all the love and support over the years. You will always be in our hearts."
The studio was founded in June 1993 as Parallax Software, which was later renamed to Volition in November 1996. Volition is best known for creating the Red Faction and Saints Row series.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
More Articles
2 huge flops in a row will do that to you (Agents of Mayhem and Saints Row Reboot). Misunderstanding what your fanbase wants out of your games is a costly mistake.
Safe to say the reboot was not a success?
Sucks to see it happen but not surprised. They got influence from Anita in a Saints Row game. That killed all the humor right there. I just wanted more Saints Row 3 with refined open world design and gameplay. I also wish we got a new Red Faction. Oh well.
After the Saints Row reboot, it was inevitable. Still sad to see it happen.
The reboot was their death knell (besides the previous flops like AoM).
This is what you get for insulting your audience that openly and with hostility.
Saints Row used to be pretty anti-establishment, but the latest one went full establishment woke narrative and bombed, unsurprisingly.
I blame the Saints Row reboot.
I mostly blame the new line of devs that took over when other staff from the previous 3 games left. They didn't know what made a Saints Row game, even in terms of fun/whacky, and topping it off with their hostility towards criticism (especially on twitter).
I know people in recent years have become more sympathetic towards devs, but in this case, not for me. They refused to elarn, adjust course and just dug down.
R.i.p volition
everyone asked for saints row to go back to its 360 1 And 2 roots and they rebooted it into that woke nonsense.. supposed to be gangsters not influencers
After Embracer announced their plans for a restructuration, I immediately thought Volition would was in danger. So yeah, sad, but not surprising news.
saints row reboot was below expectations but not unprofitable. sucks that we're seeing the fallout of the fumbled deal right here. the reboot wasn't without merit even if it was pretty rough and they didnt deserve to be killed for it
Regulators need to stop Embracer Group from buying up studios if they can't keep them open.
Why?
saints row didnt even perform financially too far out of expectations. this is the result of the botched deal embracer made, so they're trimming the fat. this is arguably the result of them buying too many studios too quickly. the size of that company is huge now, so while before i didnt think regulators should scrutinize any acquisitions, starting now they probably should.
If a studio is making games that are not selling, the world is telling us that they don't want games from that studio.
As for the people that work there, if they are good at what they do, they can go get jobs elsewhere in an environment where their skills will be better utilized. Obviously the studio that is being shut down is not making good use of the talent.
Ignoring that Embracer said it did in fact meet a financial quota sure even ignoring that lol two misses and they deserve to be axed by their parent company? Just a lost cause and everyone there deserves to be fired? Not even gonna go to management issues or a creative shakeup or better pre planning first? Bro have you ever even had a job
Edit: Developers from Volition have said that the reboot sold decently well and was profitable. They were solely axed because a deal with Saudi Arabia fell through and they need to fire thousands of people to make up for it.
I don't think the problem is them not being able to keep them open. They just closed the studio after two costly flops. Why would they keep them open if they don't think it's going to get better?
At least try to find a buyer for them, to salvage the costs of the purchase.
Who would want to buy a studio that large that has not had any success in over a decade? No buyer would want that much overhead with no return. They rather buy the IP not the studio but Embracer if they find value in the IP won't sell it. Re-released or a new game by another studio in the future. I hate shutting own studios but there is no logical reason business-wise why anyone would buy them. 230 people is a lot to hire with no proof they can churn out a profitable game in 10 years.
Get woke go broke 😅
