‘Saints Row’ developer Volition shuts down only two months after its 30th anniversary

Volition, the developer behind series such as Descent, Red Faction and Saints Row, announced that it has been shut down by Embracer Group.

“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,” explained the developer in a post to LinkedIn.

The same message was also shared to Volition’s own website, titled “Farewell”. Founded in 1993, the Illinois developer was famous for its first-person shooter series Descent and Red Faction in the ’90s and early 2000s, which were considered classics of the genre in time.

While there was originally opposition to the concept of Saints Row, the game went on to become a standout success for Volition under THQ Nordic, spawning two more entries in that series.

Unfortunately, it appeared that the newest Saints Row game from Volition, released in 2022, did not meet internal expectations for parent company Embracer Group. As a result, Embracer Group transferred Volition to Gearbox to make the most of the latter’s expertise.

“To help our team, we are working to provide job assistance and help smooth the transition for our Volition family members,” it continued. Finally, the team said that the fans of its games “will always be in our hearts” and thanked them for their years of support.

Lars Wingefors, CEO of Embracer Group, described this and the other changes under the “comprehensive restructuring program” as an opportunity to “realise untapped potential in Embracer Group and better optimise the use of our resources”.

In other gaming news, Saints Row is one of the three games included in this month’s PlayStation Plus offering, however, the price of the subscription service is about to increase.