In the video, the host discusses their visit to the studio, and how they got to play an early build of the game that was originally set to be titled Saints Row Cinco, indicating its position as the fifth mainline entry in the franchise. The story of the game would seemingly ignore the events of Saints Row 4, which essentially started off with the destruction of Earth. Instead, Saints Row Cinco would pick things up where Saints Row The Third left off, albeit while also ignoring the death of Johnny Gat.

In the planned sequel, the story would revolve around the Third Streets Saints – including the player character The Boss, as well as returning characters like Shaundi, Pierce and Johnny Gat, setting up a new headquarters for the gang in Santo Ileso. The host of the video notes that the tone for the game was described as being 20 percent inspired by the over-the-top silliness of Saints Row The Third, and 80 percent inspired by the more grounded gameplay and events of Saints Row 2. Development on Saints Row Cinco had been quite far along, with characters like Pierce even having some voices recorded for them.

However, the planned sequel hit a major snag when Deep Silver was acquired by THQ Nordic. This led to the new publisher – THQ Nordic – forcing a complete rework of the in-development Saints Row game. Under this new leadership, Volition would have to come up with entirely new concepts, complete with heavy restrictions on character dialogue. Despite being a game about a criminal gang, THQ Nordic’s directions involved certain swear words being off the table for characters. One of the concepts Volition went back to THQ Nordic was a complete reboot of Saints Row, albeit with returning characters. This was also rejected.

A general theme of the video indicates that the leadership at THQ Nordic had a fundamental misunderstanding of the Saints Row franchise. Many of the gameplay and story elements that were present in the previous games – like the ability to take a person hostage to be used as a body shield in a gun fight – being rejected for being “too violent”.

Aside from this, there was also quite a bit of planned content for the Saints Row reboot which was eventually cut. This content included intricate gameplay systems, like players being able to take over entire parts of the city and enacting laws, like dress codes. An intricate talent tree was also planned which would offer the player three distinct trees to level up through – wealth, fame, and muscle – as well as a system for opening up new business in the city.

The Saints Row reboot is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The title was only able to sell 1.7 million copies as of May 2024, and earlier this year, Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch referred to the franchise as being not feasible financially.

“They were so expensive for what they were,” Karch said, referring to the Saints Row games. “They didn’t know what they were building. They didn’t have any real direction. It couldn’t last. And so, who’s going to fund them for the next game after that disaster?”

For some context, Saints Row as a series had historically reinvented itself quite a few times. While it originally started off as a crime drama game in the vein of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, with its third release, Saints Row was reinvented into more of a lighthearted game where more focus is put down to the player having fun thanks to wacky situations they find themselves in.

Saints Row 4, on the other hand, turned into essentially a superhero game, with the player having access to various superpowers that they could then use to fight off an alien invasion. 2022’s Saints Row was an attempt at a reset button, with the game aiming for a middle ground between the original Saints Row and the zanier Saints Row The Third.

Karch also spoke about how the level of investment required for the Saints Row game didn’t directly translate into appropriate returns. While he acknowledges that keeping developer Volition would have been nice, he also noted that it wasn’t financially feasible.

“It would be nice in an ideal world for everyone to have a job,” Karch said. “But games with nine-figure budgets are making eight figures in revenue and that’s dooming a lot of developers.”

“The days of throwing money at games other than maybe the GTAs of the world is over,” Karch continued. “It’s over. This business needs to mature. If it doesn’t, the whole business is in trouble. Unfortunately, that means layoffs.”

While an attempt was made to bring the Saints Row franchise back with a bang with a reboot of the series in 2022, the title ended up being a financial flop. Back in May 2024, reports popped up indicating that only 1.7 million copies of Saints Row (2022) had been sold. The poor performance of Saints Row amidst the general chaos surrounding the Embracer Group ultimately led to developer Volition getting shut down in 2023.

“This past June, Embracer Group announced a restructuring program to strengthen Embracer and maintain its position as a leader in the video game industry,” said Volition in a statement back in 2023. “As part of that program, they evaluated strategic and operational goals and made the difficult decision to close Volition effective immediately.”

For more details about 2022’s Saints Row, check out our review. Also check out the details surrounding a rumoured pitch for Saints Row 5 that would have featured the classic cast returning, including characters like Johnny Gat, Shaundi, and Pierce.

Going by the LinkedIn page, Stevenson worked at Volition from May 2022 until the studio’s closure in 2023. Commercial performance of Saints Row seemed to have been disappointing enough that Volition was shut down back in 2023.

While Saints Row title was essentially a reboot for the entire franchise, featuring an entirely new set of characters in a new setting, and with a different mood and theme when compared to its predecessors, rumours from back in November indicated that the game was originally going to feature older characters returning.

According to these rumours, characters like Shaundi, Dex, Aisha, and Johnny Gat were planned to return in the game, before the pitch was turned down by Deep Silver in favour of the reboot.

Saints Row (2022) sold 1.7 million units. pic.twitter.com/yoLZU9ckxF

— Timur222 (@bogorad222) May 15, 2024

Replying to a tweet about Borderlands developer Gearbox being next, Schreier responded, “Stay tuned.” Reports emerged in September 2023 about Embracer potentially selling the company after a $2 billion deal that fell through, leading to mass layoffs and studio closures. An internal email from Gearbox’s chief communications officer, Dan Hewitt, followed shortly after, mentioning the possibility of the company going independent.

Interestingly, Schreier reveals that Volition of Saints Row fame was given the same opportunity, but the deal “fell through.” The developer is one of the more high-profile shutdowns by Embracer, though several former employees have since reformed as Shapeshifter Games.

As for Gearbox potentially going private, the company hasn’t officially discussed the same, so stay tuned for further developments, possibly soon.

Stay tuned

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) February 29, 2024

They actually were but it fell through

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) February 29, 2024

The studio announced itself on LinkedIn, describing itself as “a new co-development studio that was started by pulling together a group of experienced developers from Volition”. As spotted by Tech Raptor, Matt Madigon serves as the studio head, with Volition veterans Rob Loftus and Brian Traficante serving as studio directors of production and creative respectively.

“With a group of former colleagues from Volition, I am excited to announce the formation of Shapeshifter Games,” Madigon wrote. “Shapeshifter is a co-development partner for AAA games. Our goal is to grow and assist developers and publishers by providing a sustainable workforce model. It has been great reconnecting with former colleagues and a great opportunity to help others who have been affected by the industry.”

“We are focused on AAA game development,” Shapeshifter Games wrote. “One of the goals of the company is to create a more sustainable environment for developers to do their best work.”

The developer also says it’s “already hard at work with a top publisher on their next great IP”. According to lighting artist AJ Nelson, the project in question is an Xbox Game Studios game, though the name of the game hasn’t been mentioned.

Shapeshifter Games is currently looking to expand and recruit in a number of roles.

In a recently published video, YouTuber mrsaintsgodzilla21 has claimed that developer Volition’s original plan for Saints Row 5 was to focus on characters from older instalments in the series, with Johnny Gat, Shaundi, Pierce, Dex, and Aisha intended to return as the Saints.

The developer allegedly intended to appeal to both new and old series fans with a tonal balance that would have seen the game telling a more grounded story while also have some over-the-top moments. As per the video, the game’s tone would have been 80% similar to Saints Row 2, and 20% to Saints Row: The Third. Apparently, the game was also going to have a mission designed by community modder Mike Watson – who passed away in 2021 – that would have allowed players to kill Dex.

Though that was reportedly Volition’s plan for the game for a “decent portion” of its development, it ultimately did not align with what publisher Deep Silver had in mind for the series’ next instalment, leading to the original plan being scrapped and replaced with a complete reboot.

Earlier this year, Volition was shut down as part of Deep Silver parent company Embracer Group’s internal restructuring program. In the aftermath of the studio’s shuttering, Deep Silver confirmed that Saints Row would continue with other studios.

We have seen many promising studios fall due to such unfortunate scenarios, and the recent closure of developer Volition is the latest in the line of many such cases. The studio has left a long legacy of great hits and went through some troubled times during its long lifespan, so let’s take a look at how the studio rose to greatness and eventually shut its door.

Given the popularity of open world games where players can do whatever they want and create mayhem, Volition would go on to create a new IP in the form of Red Faction, and this mayhem-focused action-adventure game released in 2001 proved to a turning point for Volition. But that success was mostly short-lived as its sequel, Red Faction 2 didn’t achieve expected sales – which led to both the IPs being put on hold.

Volition would go on to work on a franchise that would go on to define the developer for the foreseeable future. The team planned to create a game that would have elements of a first-person shooter along with the ability to build gangs, and that idea would soon morph into something bigger – an open-world game that would expand on the concepts of contemporaries like Grand Theft Auto while infusing its own ideas into the mix.

Volition expanded the team by dozens during this game’s production, and Saints Row was finally released for Xbox 360 in 2006. The game was an instant hit and in addition to being critically well-received – the game also made impressive sales for a new IP with over 2 million copies sold in its lifetime. Now that Saints Row turned out to be a successful venture, the developer started work on sequels in an effort to turn the IP into a household name.

Saints Row 2 was released in 2008, and it took the franchise to new heights. The sequel featured a better open world with hilarious writing, and fans absolutely loved it. With two successes under its belt, Volition circled back to Red Faction with Red Faction: Guerrilla which was loved by fans and critics alike. Volition would also produce Red Faction: Armageddon which was a decent game but ended up lacking in sales which led to the franchise being put on hold for the foreseeable future.

Saints Row would return with a third entry in 2011, which took what worked in Saints Row 2 and expanded on those ideas which resulted in yet another successful sequel. However, the studio was sailing through troubled waters once again in 2012 – which led the developer and its IPs (which includes Saints Row) to be sold off to Koch Media and would become a part of Deep Silver.

Volition then came back with Saints Row 4 which was released in 2013, and the new game went even crazier with protagonists having superpowers and aliens being involved alongside a whole host of wacky weapons. It seemed that Volition was back in the game, but this game would mark the last of the developer’s successes.

After Saints Row 4, the developer released Agents of Mayhem in 2017 which was a spin-off to the mainline Saints Row series. It had some good things going for it, but the final product was nothing special and it ended up being received poorly with disappointing sales and mixed reviews. As a result, the studio was downsized with multiple layoffs – and would eventually start work on the next entry in this long-running franchise.

The Saints Row reboot released in 2022, tried to bring the series back to its old roots as it tried to craft a balance between realism and over-the-top action, but those efforts bore little fruit as the game flopped hard. According to some critics, the game felt dated in comparison to other contemporaries and the franchise’s signature humor lacked any kind of personality in this reboot, which ultimately led to disappointing sales figures. While there were some who appreciated what the game did, majority of the players were not happy with the experience. Volition would go on to support the game for a year with downloadable expansion packs and patches that promised to fix the game. Whether the game is an enjoyable experience in 2023 is something that is up for debate but it was soon becoming a case of “too little, too late.”

With two subsequent flops in Agents of Mayhem and Saints Row, Deep Silver’s parent company converted the studio into a subsidiary of Gearbox Software in an effort to reallocate its resources across its sub-organizations. The parent company had signed a deal worth $2 billion with a Public Investment Firm, and the company was set to use that money for further expansion to its games business. However, the deal never came through and the parent company had to cut out costs as a result. Many projects were canceled, and because Volition failed to deliver with its last two projects – its doors were closed with immediate effect, putting an end to the story of this studio.

It’s definitely a sad state of affairs, but it’s also the nature of the beast that is game development. To circle back, producing a game takes a ton of time and money, and if that investment doesn’t bear any tangible results – there will always be repercussions for it which can be as severe as shutting down the studio itself. While Volition’s output wasn’t the most consistent through the years, it was still a competent developer that could have turned its progress around had it been given another chance. After all, it did manage to survive hard times – so there was a decent chance that it could just deliver a game-changing hit in the near future.

As it stands, Red Faction and Saints Row have been transferred over to Plaion which includes subsidiaries like Deep Silver and Flying Wild Hog. Many of the studios that happen to fall under Plaion could do some great work with these IPs – so there’s hope that we might see Saints Row and Red Faction continue without the involvement of Volition. But will those IPs lose their soul? Well, we have to wait and see.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

While it remains to be seen whether the full suite of Volition’s IP will continue to have a future going forward, two of them certainly will in the form of Saints Row and Red Faction. The same was confirmed by Deep Silver – the publisher of both franchises – in a Twitter message following up on the announcement of Volition’s closure.

“Our thoughts go out to everyone at Volition, past and present,” Deep Silver wrote. “We’re incredibly grateful for their unforgettable work on Saints Row and Red Faction, whose IPs will live on at PLAION.”

Incidentally, it was announced by Embracer Group earlier in 2023 that by next year, three of its publishing labels will be merged into PLAION, with Deep Silver being one among them.

Our thoughts go out to everyone at @DSVolition, past and present. We're incredibly grateful for their unforgettable work on Saints Row and Red Faction, whose IPs will live on at @PLAION https://t.co/15PKDs2kpc

— Deep Silver (@deepsilver) September 1, 2023

“The Volition team has proudly created world-class entertainment for fans around the globe for 30 years,” the message reads. “We’ve been driven by a passion for our community and always worked to deliver joy, surprise, and delight.

“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.”

Volition’s last major release was a reboot of Saints Row, which released last year. Upon launch, the open world title was met with middling reviews, and reception from audiences was also mixed. Embracer Group called the game’s performance “very polarizing”, and the game’s commercial underperformance was reported earlier this year as well.

In November last year, Embracer Group announced that, following Saints Row’s launch amid internal restructuring, it was shifting Volition from its Deep Silver publishing label and putting it under Gearbox’s management.

Saints Row had exceeded a million players as of October last year. Its third and final DLC, A Song of Dust and Ice, launched earlier this month.

As a reboot of the developer’s acclaimed open-world action series, Saints Row was released last year for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC. You can check out our review here, but the consensus from fans is that it lacked much of the magic that defined the original games.

Volition has released several updates and paid DLC, with A Song of Dust and Ice recently becoming available and adding new story quests, weapons and vehicles. There are also new districts to explore, several improvements to the combat and much more. It was recently released on Steam with an overall “Mixed” score from user reviews. Stay tuned for confirmation in the coming days.

https://twitter.com/billbil_kun/status/1696100926707159508