Volition is no longer a subsidiary of Plaion (formerly Koch Media, which also owns Deep Silver).

Embracer Group has announced a minor reorganization following the failure of the Saints Row reboot. The game’s developer, Volition, has moved to a new subsidiary. It’s no longer part of Plaion, but of Gearbox Entertainment (yes, the rapidly expanding conglomerate has already absorbed them!). Lars Wingefors, CEO of Embracer, had this to say about “the move”:

“The reception of Saints Row did not meet the full expectations and left the fanbase partially polarized. The game development studio, Volition, has been working hard to improve the player experience. Financially, Saints Row has performed in line with management expectations in the quarter. From now on, Volition will transition to become part of Gearbox, which has all the tools, including an experienced management team in the US, to create future success at Volition. This is the first internal group transfer where we transfer a major studio between operative groups, but it is not necessarily the last.”

The timing cannot be called a coincidence. On Wednesday, the first significant update for Saints Row Reboot was released, which Volition says has over two hundred fixes. They’ve focused mainly on game stability and co-op gameplay issues with this major update. Volition emphasized that this major update is just the beginning and will continue to support the latest Saints Row game beyond 2022, so content and bug fix updates will continue under Gearbox.

Lars Wingefors, CEO of Embracer, told investors in September about the Saints Row reboot: ” I had hoped for a greater reception of the game. It’s been a very polarized view. Many things could be said and details around it. I’m happy to see a lot of gamers and fans happy. At the same time, I’m sad to see fans not happy. It’s difficult. I’m confident we will make money on the investment. Will it have as great a return on investment as we have seen in many other games? Not very likely, but we will make money, and that’s a good starting point. You always want every installment of any IP to be greater than the last one, but what you do is…evaluate your position, the outcome… and there [are] hundreds of people engaged in this game in the group. I still have great trust in those people, and I am sure they will recommend things for the future,” said Wingefors, who said it’s fair to say the franchise may need to be rethought…

That will happen under Gearbox…

Source: VGC