Saints Row Developer Volition Has Been Shut Down (gamedeveloper.com) 50
After 30 years of operations, the developer behind 2001's Red Faction and Saints Row, Volition, is being shut down. Its parent company Embracer broke the news on LinkedIn, attributing the decision to a "restructuring program." Game Developer reports: Founded in June 1993 by Mike Kulas and Matt Toschlog, Volition was originally known as Parallax Software. Its debut title was 1995's Descent, which was followed by a sequel the following year. Starting with 1998's Descent: Freespace -- The Great War, the studio would go by its current name.
Volition's "big break" game came in the form of 2001's Red Faction. That game spawned multiple sequels (ending with 2011's Red Faction: Armageddon) and a movie spinoff. Its other big franchise, Saints Row, began in 2006 and enjoyed the longer tenure: with several sequels, a soft reboot (2017's Agents of Mayhem), and 2022's full-on reboot, simply titled Saints Row. Other titles developed by the studio include 2002's Summoner 2 and The Punisher from 2004.
During the 2010s, Volition was a key developer from THQ that survived the transition over to Deep Silver. That company later rebranded to Plaion (formerly Koch Media) and itself had a "small restructure" as of 2022. Saints Row 2022, the final game from Volition, will be available on PlayStation Plus' Extra tier starting September 6.
Volition's "big break" game came in the form of 2001's Red Faction. That game spawned multiple sequels (ending with 2011's Red Faction: Armageddon) and a movie spinoff. Its other big franchise, Saints Row, began in 2006 and enjoyed the longer tenure: with several sequels, a soft reboot (2017's Agents of Mayhem), and 2022's full-on reboot, simply titled Saints Row. Other titles developed by the studio include 2002's Summoner 2 and The Punisher from 2004.
During the 2010s, Volition was a key developer from THQ that survived the transition over to Deep Silver. That company later rebranded to Plaion (formerly Koch Media) and itself had a "small restructure" as of 2022. Saints Row 2022, the final game from Volition, will be available on PlayStation Plus' Extra tier starting September 6.
Not suprising (Score:2)
Re:Not suprising (Score:4, Interesting)
I really, really wonder why anyone even wants to do a "reboot". It is setting you up for disaster. Whether it's game or movie. There are only a handful of games and movies that were reboots that didn't get panned. And the reason for it is very simple:
Why does a movie or game get rebooted? Well, of course because it was a resounding success. There isn't a Shaq Fu reboot or one of Birdemic. Why? Because they sucked. Big time. They are notorious among game and video fans for being huge, HUGE stinkers.
The problem starts at the setup: You are rebooting a classic. A game or movie that people have very, very fond memories of. They will compare your product with the original, actually, worse, they will compare it with their rose-tinted-glasses memories of the original. And as anyone who has ever been compared to an ex-lover can attest, you can't win against the fond memories of a past relationship. Because you are here and now, with all your merits and all your flaws, while the memories will only showcase the positive attributes of the lost love.
But it gets worse.
Movies and games are a product of their time. They "work" because they cater to a taste, and tastes change with time. Take a movie from the 1980s, "The Secret of my Success", starring Michael J Fox as a young, enterprising man who wants to make it big. A yuppie comedy if there ever was one. Big success. A movie like that would bomb today. Nobody wants to see a perky upstart who upstages an old businessman, not by being more "social" or by having the support of the community (that would work today) but by being an even bigger business asshole. That's not a message that lands today. That worked great in the 80s, of course, because that's what people wanted to see and hear.
Ghostbusters, same deal. And no, I'm not getting into the "it's woke" crap. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that Ghostbusters (the first, not the sequel, that didn't work for exactly the same reason the reboot didn't) was original. A horror-comedy didn't exist before and the genre only got settled in for real 4 years later with Beetlejuice. Before that, horror wasn't exactly a family-friendly genre and certainly not a comedy matter. But the formula worked. Would it today? Erhhhhhhh... probably not. It's still an ok movie, don't get me wrong, but I doubt it would be the huge, HUGE success it was back then.
tl;dr: Games and movies are a product of their time. A successful movie hit the tastes of the time, and rebooting that in a time when tastes are vastly different will not work, twice so because your new game or movie is competing with the fond memories people have of the old one, no matter how rose-tinted that look really is.
Re:Not suprising (Score:4, Insightful)
The right things to reboot are things that had a lot of promise, but flubbed the execution. Either because the plot wasn't quite there, the actors weren't the best, or it needed better special effects.
IMO it's absolutely pointless to reboot a movie that still works today. Eg, there's nothing wrong with Total Recall. The original movie is perfectly watchable as it is.
Now 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is something that could use a modern adaptation, because that's the kind of idea that could benefit a lot from modern technology. Or heck, Spawn. The concept for the comic is great. The execution is subpar. So a movie that actually made good use of the concept and delivered a coherent plot could actually be worth watching, and would be a welcome divergence from modern Marvel/DC content.
Also, Ghostbusters: Afterlife exists, came out recently and IMO was a decent movie overall.
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The right things to reboot are things that had a lot of promise, but flubbed the execution. Either because the plot wasn't quite there, the actors weren't the best, or it needed better special effects.
I'd add to your list, because the studio/network did not support the movie/show the way they should've. Firefly being an obvious example (the things with Joss coming to light notwithstanding), but there's a ton of really good movies/shows that never got their stride because they were (typically accidentally) sabotaged by the very people who paid to have them made.
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I really, really wonder why anyone even wants to do a "reboot". It is setting you up for disaster. Whether it's game or movie. There are only a handful of games and movies that were reboots that didn't get panned. And the reason for it is very simple:
They had to do a "reboot" of Saints Row because the story of SR4 had more or less ended the idea of a sequel (Spoiler Alert, they blew up the earth). They needed to start afresh with new character. Sadly they didn't do it right.
Plenty of reboots have been done well, Nightdive's System Shock (OK, this was almost a carbon copy of 1994's System Shock, but its what we wanted), Bethesda's Wolfenstein just to name a few. Gamers (and movie goers) do love going back to lore-rich universes (look at the success of
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This is why the whole GTA series is successful. They are not making the same game over and over again. The only games which are highly same-y are the DOS originals. Like ooh, on this one I drive on the other side of the road, wow! Even those games were groundbreaking for their day (I played quite a bit of 'em at LAN parties) but only the first one was very relevant. GOURANGA!
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And as anyone who has ever been compared to an ex-lover can attest, you can't win against the fond memories of a past relationship. Because you are here and now, with all your merits and all your flaws, while the memories will only showcase the positive attributes of the lost love.
My first wife passed away 10 years ago and I still struggle not comparing people I am with to the nearly saintly image of my first wife that is probably nowhere close to being based on reality.
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Ghostbusters, same deal. And no, I'm not getting into the "it's woke" crap. That wasn't the problem.
Let's be honest - the woke aspect was made to protect the creators from criticism. Unfortunately for them, the movie was so bad, no shield could protect it.
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https://store.steampowered.com/app/496040/Shaq_Fu_A_Legend_Reborn/
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I really, really wonder why anyone even wants to do a "reboot". It is setting you up for disaster.
Except there's plenty of successful examples of reboots. The problem has little to do with rebooting something, the problem has to do with not respecting the source material and shoehorning some strange modern take on it or fundamentally changing the motivations that made the original compelling.
Take Tomb Raider for instance, the reboot was excellent. There's no reason Saints Row couldn't have been. It was just a shit game.
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Saints Row was in kind of a good position to be rebooted. Saints Row 4 saw the destruction of Earth, and the death of the last remaining villain. They could have continued their adventures into space, but at some point we're not really doing Saints Row, anymore.
I think the real problem is that they kind of created 2 kinds of Saints Row. Saints Row 1 and 2 were mostly serious with some mild comedic elements, while Saints Row the Third and Saints Row 4 were entirely comedy. The fans of 1 and 2 didn't like the
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The problem is, you cannot make a parody of "woke". Nobody wants that. The proponents will be insulted and the rest doesn't give a fuck about it.
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Agreed. When making their do-or-die last stand, Volition misjudged what their audience would respond favorably to. I'm personally enjoying the game now that it's on Steam, but it really doesn't have the magic that won me over in Saints Row the Third.
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I really, really wonder why anyone even wants to do a "reboot".
I'm in a love / hate relationship with this. Mostly because of the meta analysis of it. Neir and Zelda are great at this: I love the feeling that no matter what Link does, it won't matter: there will be a reboot. Ganon will come back. He will have to fight. Over and over and over again for all of eternity. The idea of a final game where the demon is defeated and no new Zelda's are made is an interesting one.
Same for Simpsons. Even the same for Ghostbusters. Just endless photocopies, degrading over time, nev
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Just endless photocopies, degrading over time, never being allowed to end.
I prefer the tea analogy. The first is sharp, very strong, a bit off though and kinda rough. Using the same leaves a second time usually has a much more mellow taste, you're used to it already, some new flavors you didn't notice before come to the forefront and you get to enjoy it again. If it's a really good tea, you can even use the leaves a third time and they will be very smooth, the brew takes on another note and since the strong, overpowering tones are fading away, you get to notice the more subtle, g
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> Why does a movie or game get rebooted?
Greed. Why do you think Robin Hood has been remade 18 times. [wikipedia.org]
Writing (Score:5, Funny)
Just watch the Saints Row "millennial writing" cringe compilations and you can see why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Sad but sensible (Score:3, Insightful)
Red Faction: Amazing physics engine, fun and unique gameplay, interesting story/concept
Red Faction Sequels: Terrible. Not even a reskin in that the first felt better.
Sains Row: Hilarious dig at GTA with unique customization options and really fun arcade gameplay
Then they made some embarrassing reskin.
I think they're issue is they tried to make corporate decisions like lazily milking IP without first establishing a meaningful foothold.
Activision and Ubisoft can get away with it; they could not.
Re:Sad but sensible (Score:4, Insightful)
The issue was that they massively invested in making one of the wokest remakes to date.
How woke was it? They even censored things like the chop shops in game, that used to be called "rim jobs", because "sexism". And they talked about this shit several times. Proudly.
Re: Sad but sensible (Score:2)
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Gat out of Hell was better. Though that was an expansion masquerading as a stand alone game.
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Hey, the musical number in the middle was worth the 15 bucks they asked for.
Plus the next cutscene where she meets Gat, starts singing and he cuts her short with "nope. We're not doing that again".
It was just the most corny thing in the world, and that's what made it great. How corny? Well, decide for yourself [youtube.com].
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Even worse, the series' extremely in-your-face very politically incorrect and sexual humour has become one of the main things it was known for. Replacing that with political correctness and milquetoast millenial humour pretty much guaranteed it would never be seen as a real Saints Row game. It's like making a Mortal Kombat game with no blood or visible injuries. Or a Fast and Furious movie where nobody ever breaks the speed limit and always drives safely and responsibly. Or, I dunno, a Rambo movie where no
Re: (Score:2)
In "First Blood", Rambo only kills one person, and that was an accident. He does kill 254 people in "Rambo", though.
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I think Volition flopped because of the technical changes I specifically listed: their physics engine.
Maybe you're looking for 4chan's
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>Whenever someone uses the word woke you can be certain they're being entirely political.
Wokeness is a descriptor of specific brand of Marxism. Using it to describe that is no more political than describing national socialists as such, communists as such, liberals as such and so on.
To pretend that there's something "entirely political" about describing a political ideology is brazen gaslighting. I do not accept your insane premise.
P.S. But yes, the game totally flopped because of a "physics engine". We c
Re: (Score:2)
Saints Row: GTA clone
Saints Row2: GTA clone, poo flinger edition
Saints Row3: GTA clown, gameshow edition
Saints Row4: Ok, fuck it, why bother with realism anymore? Aliens locking us in a virtual reality it is!
SR: Gat out of Hell: We've had aliens, we've had zombies, what can we do to up the ante? Right. Let's dethrone Satan in hell.
Saints Row Reboot, designer meeting:
"What made our series so successful?"
"Well, we dumped realism in favor of more and more off-the-wall wacky, zany, crazy shit."
"Right. Let's mak
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I got Saints Row with a bundle and I played it for all of five minutes before I decided it was shit, but my summary of it is that it's GTA reimagined in the style of Crazy Taxi. So. Low. Rent. I literally uninstalled it and then went and played through GTA V again.
Freespace 2 (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Freespace 2 (Score:4, Interesting)
Truly the greatest space sim of all time.
Not that I ever expected Volition to make a sequel (virtually everyone ever involved with it is gone anyhow). But it's still a shame to see Volition close. This hurts almost as much as the day Dynamix died.
Re:Freespace 2 (Score:4, Interesting)
Now we know for sure there will never be a FreeSpace sequel.
That because the original contract with Interplay specifies that only Volition can be the developer, and only Interplay can be the publisher.
Big sigh.
For those who don't know, FreeSpace 2 has been open-sourced and the community has made numerous graphical and other enhancements, allowing the game to run on current OS, not to mention numerous 3rd party campaigns. Only thing missing is VR support.
Check it out.
https://www.hard-light.net/for... [hard-light.net]
You can get your copy on GoG:
https://www.gog.com/en/game/fr... [gog.com]
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I just saw there is a B5 port for the open-source freespace. Anyone play it?
I tried looking for reviews but there isn't much.
Re:Freespace 2 (Score:4, Interesting)
Yep, Freespace 2 is still the best game Volition ever made and the best space combat sim ever. I still play Freespace 2 from time to time.
If driving games were like modern space sims you'd have to start the game by driving to a petrol station, filling the car, buying an energy drink, going for a piss and then sitting in traffic on your way to the racetrack.
You know what isn't fun? Flying for ages between star systems where nothing happens. Screw that. I'll defend to the death the self-contained mission structure of the Freespace games. You go from menu, to mission briefing (which were fully voiced, minimalist and cool) and then straight into the mission. Freespace 2 got everything RIGHT. Beam weapons look dope, too.
Descent (Score:2)
This is a gem of 90s. Sequel(s) too, including Freespace. And Red Faction, also kind of revolutionary.
Never played Saints Row, but it seems to have a culture.
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Descent 2 was an amazing game. Descent 3 stunk.
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Re: Descent (Score:2)
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This is Descent!
I love Descent!
I bought a fight stick joystick just to play this game. Much more fun that way than mouse/kb or a controller.
The only down side is that HONESTBOB doesn't seem to work.
The article is Wrong (Score:5, Informative)
Big Steam sale on Saints Row ?? (Score:2)
Asking for a friend
Those Were The Days (Score:1)
Should have put Descent on the Wii (Score:2)
Not just Embracer (Score:2)
Not just Embracer, but also Extender and now Extinguisher.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]