It’s a sad day in the video game industry as one of the longest tenured developer is closing its doors. Embracer Group has officially shut down Volition Games, which is part of their “restructuring program.” The announcement was made by Volition themselves on their LinkIn page, which was then posted everywhere on every social media page imaginable. The studio’s closure comes just after they celebrated their 30th anniversary, which only makes this situation that much more unfortunate.
As you can see in the post above, the studio detailed Embracer’s ongoing situation along with their decision to close the studio. The post also thanks the fans for all of the support they’ve received over the years, and that they “will always be in our hearts.” The restructuring that Volition mentions is Embracers response to their catastrophic collapse of a proposed deal with the Savvy Games Group, which is a Saudi Arabia group sun by the Crown Prince. The deal, which was for an insane $2 billion, was all set to go into effect until the latter backed out in May. This caused Embracer’s shares to plummet, and forced the massive corporation into a situation in which they were not used to; cost cutting.
As we mentioned earlier, Voliton’s untimely demise came just as the studio was celebrating it’s 30th anniversary. Volition was formed way back in 1993 by developers Mike Kulas and Matt Toschlog, who initially branded it as Parallax Software Corporation. The only released two titles, Descent and Descent II before permanently changing the name to Volition in 1998. While the studio enjoyed varying success in the market, they’re most likely known for two specific IP’s that made some major waves in the video game industry; Red Faction and Saints Row. Both franchises were, and are still highly regarded in the video game community.