Saints Row developer has been shut down 'effective immediately'

It’s always a sad day when a major studio is forced to shut its doors. Unfortunately, Volition Games - the studio behind the latest Saints Row reboot - has announced that it’s being shut down by parent company The Embracer Group.

Saints Row (2022) wasn’t quite the comeback Volition were hoping for. The game garnered mixed reviews, namely for the fact that it was ridden with bugs. Metacritic scores ranged from a measly 61 to 65. In our review, we wrote, “Saints Row isn’t a bad game at all. In my 20 hours so far, I’ve had fun in Santo Ileso, and I’ll likely put plenty more hours in as I aim for 100% completion. The problem is that it’s not a groundbreaking game by any means. It’s the video game equivalent of a later Fast & Furious movie: it’s silly and over the top like it’s meant to be, but nothing really feels exceptional here.”

Take a look at Saints Row (2022) in action below.

Clearly, that lucklustre response marked the beginning of the end for Volition who, across the years, also worked on the Descent and Red Faction series. The studio took to LinkedIn to announce their untimely closure. The post read, “The Volition team has proudly created world-class entertainment for fans around the globe for 30 years. We’ve been driven by a passion for our community and always worked to deliver joy, surprise, and delight.”

They continued, “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. We thank our customers and fans around the world for all the love and support over the years. You will always be in our hearts.”

Embracer Group appears to be focusing their efforts on ‘reliable’ franchises like Lord of the Rings and Tomb Raider, after warning there’d be studio cuts earlier this year.