Volition (Saints Row developer) shuts down
Funding troubles for parent conglomerate Embracer Group continue their ripple effects.
There goes my dream of an Agents of Mayhem sequel.
They made a lot of bad moves after a while but the saints row series and their other games were pretty baller. Sad. Hope the team all find good stable positions after.
To what extent were the og Saint's Row games and the remake made by the same people? I know Volition's name was on both games, but I wonder if a lot of the experienced leaders left Volition after Saints Row 4? Seems like that's always the explanation whenever a studio's games take a sudden dip in quality.
You know it's pretty likely the most experienced people left long ago. It would explain a whoooooooole lot.
Disappointing, but not surprising given how poorly received the last Saints Row game was and how Embracer made it clear they were going to be closing studios once their Saudi deal fell through. Hopefully, some of the studio can land on their feet, but still, thirty years in the industry just to get shut down like that.
30 years, wow! Pretty big shame to see another studio shut down
Embracer group is terrible. It came with big promises of reviving dormant franchises but it's just closing studios with not a single game announcement to show for it.
That’s very sad. I enjoyed Saints Row 4 a lot. Very rare to find such a good meme game. I hope they make a comeback.
Descent doesn't get mentioned enough, along with the true gem, Descent: Freespace. Long and storied history there.
I doubt any of the guys that worked on Decent or the Freespace games are part of Volition at this point.
But damn are those games good.
If any game deserves a remake/remaster, it's Freespace. Doesn't need much, just bring it up to par with Freespace 2 mechanics wise and polish the graphics a bit.
No reason to change anything else.
Freespace 2 with a force feedback joystick. When you got a bit too close to a capital ship's beam weapon and the whole joystick started to shake. One of my most immersive experiences in a game.
I honestly did not know Volition was Parallax.
A shame, but the writing has been on the wall for a long time. Volition was never quite the same after the THQ bankruptcy, and that was still several years before Embracer took over.
Wtf, this is the 3rd game studio shutting down this month.
Yep, it's been a trend all year. My studio got canned back at the end of January. Publisher called us into a studio-wide meeting scheduled during lunch with 1 hour of notice, only to say "The game you spent 6 years on is canceled and all 150 of you are fired. The media will know in 30 minutes, don't say anything until then if you want to keep a severance package." (I have since landed on my feet elsewhere.)
These studios are owned by big publishers and generally work for years at a loss. With the costs to borrow increasing, we're seeing cuts on long-term investments that might not make their money back (like movies and games).
Volition was owned by Embracer, which is now struggling with funding. So anything that isn't a sure bet is effectively canned - and in turn you see these studios shut down left and right, plus big layoffs from studios that are still open.
Sad, because I was a fan of them and bought all their games from Saint's Row 1 all the way to Gat out of Hell (although not in chronological order) and got Agents of Mayhem for free somewhere, but think they've made some bad moves lately.
I think it all started going downhill from Agents of Mayhem, and them screwing up with the reboot of Saint's Row was probably the nail in the coffin. I wish they'd just made Saint's Row 5 instead, with wacky time travel shenanigans and a more polished set of superpowers.
At the point where they decided to "reboot" to something old school and grittier (TOO old school, imo) they really didn't get what their fanbase wanted, and what new players who'd only heard of and experienced Saint's Row 4 would get excited about.
They could've probably taken Saint's Row up to 6 entries if they'd just iterated on the formula from 4 and possibly Gat out of Hell (I wouldn't know, I got distracted and didn't play it after I bought it, ironically). Similar to how United Front Games (the developer of Sleeping Dogs) could've probably stayed in business if they'd just made Sleeping Dogs 2 instead of that horrible "free to play" multiplayer asset flip of some of the least interesting elements of Sleeping Dogs 1.
That's what happened to Sleeping Dogs? Lame. I loved that game!
I agree with Saints Row. I didn't think new younger audiences would take to a restart of the formula, or that old fans would want to start from scratch so to speak. Meanwhile ramping up from 4 would sate the old fans by somehow getting even more bonkers, and younger gamers would have this insane shit show of a sandbox even if they aren't familiar with the brand (and would probably boost sales of the old ones too.)
I've never really understood the hate for Agents of Mayhem. It really captures "playable action movie" perfectly. I'd say my biggest complaint is that it is very poorly balanced such that most characters are unusable at the highest difficulties.
🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles: ::: spoiler Click here to see the summary "The Volition team has proudly created world-class entertainment for fans around the globe for 30 years," the statement reads, in part.
After that deal fell apart, Embracer warned that it would be forced to undergo a major restructuring program that would impact an unforeseen number of the company's then-17,000 employees through March 2024.
Started in 1993 under the name Parallax Software, the studio that would later become Volition first made a name for itself with Descent, a 3D space shooter that innovated by allowing free movement in all directions.
The company was acquired by THQ in 2000, which oversaw the publishing of the destruction-based Red Faction FPS franchise and the start of gonzo crime simulator Saints Row.
When THQ dissolved in 2013, Volition was purchased by Koch Media's Deep Silver publishing arm, which was itself acquired by a quickly growing Embracer in 2018.
The Saints Row and Red Faction franchises will remain as part of Embracer's Plaion division, according to a statement provided to PC Gamer.
Saved 54% of original text. :::
Descent was my jam! Talk about memories from this article.