Saints Row developer Volition permanently shuts down

In the post, the company explained that the reason for Volition’s closure was tied to parent company Embracer Group’s new restructuring program.

“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 announcement read. “As a part of that program, they evaluated strategic and operational goals and made the difficult decision to close Volition effective immediately.”

Back in June, Embracer Group announced this restructuring program after the news broke that a $2 billion investment deal with the company had fallen through. Though Embracer kept secret who was on the other side of that deal, Axios reported that it was none other than Savvy Games Group, the gaming arm of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. As a result of the deal’s failure, Embracer said that it would restructure the company, including pausing development on some games, reducing spending, and selling off or shutting down studios. Volition is seemingly the first such studio publicly impacted by Embracer’s restructuring.

Volition was founded back in 1993 as Parallax Software, developers of the Descent series of video games. In 1996, it adopted the name Volition before creating the Summoner, Red Faction, and Saints Row franchises. The studio was acquired by THQ in 2000 and summarily sold to Deep Silver when THQ filed for bankruptcy in 2017. In 2022, Volition launched a reboot of Saints Row to middling reviews.

Volition closed the announcement by saying it would help impacted employees try to find new jobs and with a message for fans. “We thank our customers and fans around the world for all the love and support over the years,” the statement read. “You will always be in our hearts.”