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Saints Row developer Volition shut down by Embracer Group

By Tomas Franzese August 31, 2023

Volition — the studio behind series like Saints Row — has been shut down by Embracer Group.

Volition was first founded as Parallax Software in 1993, and made a name for itself over the past 30 years with series like Descent, Red Faction, and Saints Row. The studio has had many owners over that period, first being acquired by THQ before being sold to Plaion, which placed the developer under its Deep Silver label. Plaion and Deep Silver were then acquired by Embracer Group in 2018. Its most recent game, a reboot of Saints Row, was released last year to mixed reviews, which caused Embracer Group to then shift ownership of the studio over to Plaion’s sister company, Gearbox Entertainment.

Saints Row is actually a PlayStation Plus Essential game this September, but the studio won’t be around to see that because the decision has finally been made to close it. We first learned of this via a post on X from former Volition VFX artist Ryan Hoss; Volition went on to confirm the closure on LinkedIn.

“This past June, Embracer Group announced a restructuring program to strengthen Embracer and maintain its position as a leader in the video game industry,” the message explained. “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 reached out to Embracer Group for comment to see if it could provide more specific insight into why it chose to close Volition and will update this article when we get a response.

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Tomas Franzese is a Staff Writer at Digital Trends, where he reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…

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