Volition Video games, the studio behind franchises corresponding to Saints Row and Pink Faction, has been shut down successfully instantly.
The information first broke on X.com, with a number of staff posting that they’d been let go and that the studio was no extra. In an official assertion on the studio’s web site, Volition states that Swedish holdings firm Embracer Group, which acquired the studio in 2018, has pressured it to stop operations as a part of Embracer’s company-wide restructuring. Volition’s full farewell publish reads as follows:
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“The Volition workforce has proudly created world-class leisure for followers across the globe for 30 years. We’ve been pushed by a ardour for our neighborhood and at all times labored to ship pleasure, shock, and delight.
This previous June, Embracer Group introduced a restructuring program to strengthen Embracer and preserve its place as a frontrunner within the online game trade. As a part of that program, they evaluated strategic and operational targets and made the tough determination to shut Volition efficient instantly.
To assist our workforce, we’re working to supply job help and assist easy the transition for our Volition members of the family. We thank our clients and followers around the globe for all of the love and assist through the years. You’ll at all times be in our hearts.”
Embracer’s restructuring is the results of a disastrous collapse of a proposed $2 billion partnership with Savvy Video games Group, a Saudi Arabian-funded group, who backed out of the deal in Could. This brought on Embracer’s share worth to plummet, forcing the mega-corporation into cost-cutting mode after it spent years buying a mess of recreation studios and leisure IPs, corresponding to The Lord of the Rings.
Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors introduced in an open letter plans to make the corporate a “leaner, stronger and a extra centered, self-sufficient firm,” which included plans to shut or unload a few of its recreation studios, together with halting tasks in growth and different cost-saving measures. Sadly, Volition has develop into one of many first casualties of this restructuring.
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Saints Row: The Third Remastered
Volition’s demise comes after the corporate celebrated its thirtieth anniversary as a studio in June. Starting with the Descent sequence (launched beneath Voliton’s authentic identify, Parallax Software program) and releasing cult favorites corresponding to Summoner, it discovered main success with the Pink Faction franchise through the 2000s, peaking with the well-received Pink Faction: Guerilla in 2009. Volition would kick off the Xbox 360 technology with the discharge of Saints Row, a GTA-inspired sequence that might steadily acquire reputation and a singular identification earlier than reaching its zenith with the critically acclaimed Saints Row: The Third in 2011.
Nevertheless, following the discharge of Saints Row IV in 2013, the studio entered a tough patch. It took a swing with a brand new IP within the tepidly obtained Brokers of Mayhem in 2017, which garnered disappointing gross sales. Its remaining recreation, 2022’s Saints Row reboot, additionally obtained a blended response from followers and underperformed in gross sales to the purpose that Embracer transferred the studio to Gearbox. With the studio’s closure, it’s unclear what’s going to develop into of Saints Row, Pink Faction, and the opposite franchises beneath its umbrella.
Whereas the previous few years weren’t sort of Volition, there’s no denying the constructive influence its video games and sequence had on the trade. What’s your favourite Volition recreation? Share your recollections within the feedback under.
Supply: Recreation Informer
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