Volition Studios officially being closed by Embracer Group. It was already kind of a dead man walking, and the reception of the Saints Row game didn’t help, I’d imagine.
Still sucks.
This sucks. :(
Well this makes the future of Saints Row even bleaker, I imagine.
Good luck to the Volitioners, Red Faction: Guerilla and Saints Row 2-4 are some of my most favorite games of the past 25 years. I will always cherish them for this.
But but… I wanted RF: Guerrilla 2…
Damn, the last Saints Row game killed them, eh?
Well, two flops in a row probably did it. I think Tom was the only reviewer on the internet who loved Agents of Mayhem.
And then, of course, the sales and reception for Saints Row seems to have been even worse.
I have a lot of friends still there, this sucks.
pours one out for Freespace 2
This sucks. I did not really enjoy my time with the new Saints game, but this sucks nevertheless.
Man, They had a run there from RF: Guerilla to Saints Row IV where they were putting out absolute bangers.
I wonder what happened.
There’s something about games like Red Faction: Guerilla, Outcast, or Mafia that I think I actually love more than the bona fide classic favorites like Doom, Half-life, or Ocarina of Time. Perhaps that’s because these underdog gems far exceeded my expectations. Or maybe it’s because I’ve always been wired to love stuff on the margins more than the mainstream.
RF:G was among the only games I ever 100%'ed. I spent ages working on a race across the map, trying to take the roads as fast as possible only to get frustrated try after try. Until I realized…
Taking it as the crow flies, jumping across chasms instead of driving on that bridge… what a thrill to beat that challenge. And taking down that tall tower on a tight time limit was another memorable victory. It’s the side challenges I remember more than the main game.
Saints Row was fun enough but I’m Team RFG for lyfe, baybee! Tattoo it on my ass. Vale Volition! I’m grateful for the fun times.
People internally were complaining about that race, and they were considering cutting it or making it easier. I said “fuck that”, and grabbed the Lead Designer, then walked him over to my desk and proceeded to smash that race, completing it well before the time was up. I told him “It’s supposed to be hard, but it’s obviously not impossible. Gamers are better at games than devs; they’ll get it.” We kept it in.
RF:G was groundbreaking (har) for open world games, and I am surprised it hasn’t been emulated by anyone else. I suppose you need the proper engine to do it, but that game absolutely whipped ass.
I seem to recall some discussion that the tradeoffs to get what they got out of the engine - all the destructible stuff (that was permanent too) meant lots of compromises in other areas. And those were generally not choices most games would want to make.
And I don’t think it sold great. But I always wanted a proper sequel. I love RF:G. It’s just so unique and so much fun.
According to an interview RF:G shipped over 1 million copies, which is not too bad.
Looking over the history of the company, it sounds like they bled a ton of talent after SR:IV, and the creative director left to join Valve.
No, but it’s not enough for the people who cut the checks, either (sadly). I believe it was part of the reason the next Red Faction game was radically different.
Not unsurprising, obviously. What is surprising is that many of the old guard were still there, at least I assume they were given njimeijer’s post.
Hopefully they split off and focus on smaller, niche games. Freespace 3 and Summoner 3, not Saints Row 5. Not a giant open-world game with tons of random crap to do-- a focused experience that can be reasonably completed by a small team and shipped polished and complete.
Like, why not talk to DDG and ask to license their Rebel Galaxy Outlaw engine to make Freespace 3 (with a different name, of course, due to Interplay owning the license)? Share revenue, ship the game in 18 months, sell for $39.99, put it on Game Pass. 100% focus on building content, not on the technicals.
Some of them tried that when they split off and made Overload via Kickstarter, which is pretty much Descent, but better. But it didn’t sell well, and I think most of that group went back to Volition after it didn’t work out.
I don’t think Freespace 3 will do that much better, sadly. Or Summoner 3.
IMO, Descent is a tough nut to swallow. People don’t appreciate the 6dof. I can say that because I don’t enjoy it myself. There’s a reason why nobody made Descent clones all those years.
Arcadey space shooters are a very different animal, as are ARPGs. You can jump in and go, no need to acclimate to an alien control scheme and hella-confusing maps. RGO is particularly strong there with its many QoL improvements in the genre, working great with both controllers and mouse+keyboard, no HOTAS required.
This is awesome! Thanks for doing that. I love overcoming a challenge and that one required creative thinking as well as skill. Fun shit. I’ll carry that win to my grave.
Oh man. I forgot this game even existed and I played it all the way through.
Crazy!