Saints Row Developer Volition has announced its full closure as part of a “restructuring” plan introduced by its parent company Embracer Group. The news comes just weeks after the developer celebrated its 30th birthday and follows the lackluster response to its reboot of the Saints Row series last year.
Saints Row Developer Volition Announces Studio Closure
Volition broke the news in a post on its LinkedIn page, confirming that the closure was part of the restructuring plan and that they would be assisting their employees in finding future opportunities:
“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.”
Embracer first announced the plan after the collapse of a $2 billion dollar deal with the Saudi0-Arabian organization Savvy Games Group. In an open letter addressed to employees, Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors revealed that the plan would include “closing or divestments of some studios and the termination or pausing of some ongoing game development projects”.
Volition was first formed in 1993 under the moniker of Parallax Software before going on to enjoy significant success in the 2000s with both the Saints Row and Red Faction series. The studios reputation and presence in the industry began to wane with the release of Agents of Mayhem. It was released to mixed reviews and resulted in layoffs at Volition. The nail in the coffin was seemingly the release of the Saints Row reboot last year which was blasted both by critics and fans resulting in an underwhelming performance in sales.
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It was recently announced by PlayStation that the Saints Row reboot will be joining the September line up of PlayStation Plus titles and will be available to stream or download from the platform until Monday, October 2.
