As someone in the industry it's really scary to think that any studio I work for could be snapped up by a conglomerate like Embracer and then shuttered with no warning. The loss of institutional...
As someone in the industry it's really scary to think that any studio I work for could be snapped up by a conglomerate like Embracer and then shuttered with no warning. The loss of institutional knowledge is unbelievable.
To be fair, Volition has had multiple financial bombs in a row. It’s not at all obvious that if they were independent they wouldn’t have been bankrupt anyway, if not even earlier.
To be fair, Volition has had multiple financial bombs in a row. It’s not at all obvious that if they were independent they wouldn’t have been bankrupt anyway, if not even earlier.
Yeah, they have been running on Embracer's fumes for a while now. Gat Out of Hell was 2015 - reviews were not super kind and it didn't seem to sell very well (for what it's worth, I enjoyed it)....
Yeah, they have been running on Embracer's fumes for a while now.
Gat Out of Hell was 2015 - reviews were not super kind and it didn't seem to sell very well (for what it's worth, I enjoyed it).
Agents of Mayhem was 2017, again not super warmly received, and sales seemed pretty dismal. I remember I bought a copy of it maybe a year after it came out for $3 and never even touched it.
Then they didn't do anything new until the newest Saints Row which clearly sold way under what they needed it to do... it was the last chance and it was a miss.
Agents of Mayhem was in many ways Saints Row minus the fun characters and with a less open-ended demi-roleplaying structure, emphasizing the shooty actiony bits. Those bits are far from being bad,...
Agents of Mayhem was in many ways Saints Row minus the fun characters and with a less open-ended demi-roleplaying structure, emphasizing the shooty actiony bits. Those bits are far from being bad, but personally that was just the parts of Saints Row that I kind of just put up with because I liked the other parts so much. One of the hallmarks of a great game is that it can get people to like it even when it's stuff they don't normally like, and Volition did that for me regularly.
I think from the article that Embracer shut them down more because of their financial troubles moreso than their relative failure with Saints Row. In spite of this and my genuinely low opinion of them, I don't think they're quite that heartless.
I didn't even know the new saints row was out. I saw the trailer, but every trailer I've seen at e3, or similar events, usually means the game will be out in the next 8 years.
I didn't even know the new saints row was out. I saw the trailer, but every trailer I've seen at e3, or similar events, usually means the game will be out in the next 8 years.
As someone hoping to get into the industry (and as a writer, so it's even harder since those are usually exclusively contract jobs), I'm always uneasy at how unstable the industry is. Even if they...
As someone hoping to get into the industry (and as a writer, so it's even harder since those are usually exclusively contract jobs), I'm always uneasy at how unstable the industry is. Even if they don't get snapped up and shut down by a conglomerate, big studios can fold due to a couple flops. Then you have indie studios that get too big, too fast, which leads to decisions to try to appeal to investors to meet fans' demands and expectations for bigger games and stay afloat, and then many of them fold too.
I remember one developer realized they'd developed PTSD from all the layoffs. They'd gotten laid off at one company, got another job and within a couple months there was a surprise round of layoffs there. Described the atmosphere as tense and almost funeral-like at the office afterwards, everyone just on edge. The worst part is there's often no warning. I remember following the Telltale closure closely and they literally found out they had no longer had jobs when they went to work that morning. Absolutely zero warning period, no time to start searching for another job. At least many of them found new work thanks to the #TellTaleJobs hashtag on Twitter, but having to find a job on short notice in a high cost-of-living area is rough.
There's just no real job security in the industry right now. No guarantee that a studio will stay around unless it's one of the MAJOR ones, and even then there's plenty of turnover and burnout. Something needs to change.
I mean it kinda is what it is. If anything is changing, it’s that the rise of Games as a Service, subscriptions, and micro transactions are smoothing out previously spiky income graphs. But as...
I mean it kinda is what it is. If anything is changing, it’s that the rise of Games as a Service, subscriptions, and micro transactions are smoothing out previously spiky income graphs.
But as long as games are a release oriented industry, this is what happens. When your company’s future all lies on one release, when there’s so much random stuff that can derail it, it’s unstable. It’s no different in the movie industry, other than that most people there don’t even get to be salaried employees, and are all on contract.
Yeah, which I still hate. I'm an only child and never got into competitive online gaming, which most "games as a service" are. I value good single-player games, especially those with a narrative,...
Yeah, which I still hate. I'm an only child and never got into competitive online gaming, which most "games as a service" are. I value good single-player games, especially those with a narrative, which can be tricky to find these days. It's frustrating how so many big studios are going for the micro transactions with such obvious greed and neglecting good gameplay balance.
I think part of the issue is just how big games have gotten. The first Legend of Zelda game had a team of six. Tears of the Kingdom meanwhile had 1,148. Obviously Nintendo isn't the norm, but I think that shows just how complex games have become in the last 30 years. The technology has advanced rapidly, and with it so did the costs and work needed to make each one. The bigger the studio and title, the more needed to make it.
They're also not as accessible as movies, due to both players' skill level/mechanics, and also literal access since they're limited to specific consoles. Anyone can watch movies as long as they have a TV or computer that can play DVD, Blu-ray or VHS, there's no skill barrier. But not everyone will have the reflexes needed for rhythm games, or an interest in turn-based strategy games, or the time to devote 100 hours to a game versus 2-3 hours for a movie.
By default, games have a smaller audience than movies do, so that already cuts the potential profits. And the intensive work, resources, time and money needed for making the bigger games limits their ability to develop and release multiple games each year. The major studios like Nintendo are fine, but for other studios, especially those that grew too fast, they can only really afford to work on one game at a time, which makes the releases big gambles that can sink or save the company.
It's an issue with no real resolution I can think of, at least off the top of my head. Scale and being "too big" is an issue in every industry, but it's especially noticeable in gaming.
The problem is more of a lack of diversification. When you have all your eggs in one basket and that basket breaks, you run out of eggs. In the past, big game companies were not big because they...
The problem is more of a lack of diversification. When you have all your eggs in one basket and that basket breaks, you run out of eggs.
In the past, big game companies were not big because they were all working on single projects at a time. Konami had a seperate divisions for arcade games, console games, and computer games, and each of those divisions had internal teams working on different projects. If a team was unsuccessful once, they'd try again with the lessons they'd learned. If they continually failed, they would reshuffle the team around, and firings were localized largely to people who could be identified as underperforming.
Now that I think about it, I think that things are still largely the same, just the way they are organized is a little different. Embracer tried to do this to an extent with Volition; they made them a subsidiary of Gearbox before this happened. The problem seems to be that Embracer is just doing their business badly. From what I understand, they made a two billion dollar bet and lost, and they decided that Volition was the watch they'd pawn to pay off their gambling debts.
I really don't think that's the case any more, at least not to a meaningful degree. If you include mobile gaming, games are much, much bigger by revenue than movies as an industry. The success of...
By default, games have a smaller audience than movies do, so that already cuts the potential profits.
I really don't think that's the case any more, at least not to a meaningful degree. If you include mobile gaming, games are much, much bigger by revenue than movies as an industry. The success of mobile gaming is a big part of the reason why so many traditional video games companies are chasing microtransactions and GaaS like they are.
I talking about individual games, not gaming as a whole. Anyone can go to a movie theater, most people own a DVD player or at least a TV. Meanwhile most movies are under 3 hours, so it's easy to...
I talking about individual games, not gaming as a whole. Anyone can go to a movie theater, most people own a DVD player or at least a TV. Meanwhile most movies are under 3 hours, so it's easy to agree to see one with someone even if it isn't a film you'd go out of your way to see on your own.
The minimum bar for playing a game is owning a console or computer the specific game works on. Then you have further limitations through skill level and genre, which will further limit the audience. The time commitment needed for games versus movies will further shrink the audience, since not many people would be willing to buy a game with a 12 hour campaign in a genre they don't like.
Yes. I'm a game writer and have genuine significant trauma from working conditions in the industry. It took me 10 years to find a semi stable job where I'm also paid well and treated well.
Yes. I'm a game writer and have genuine significant trauma from working conditions in the industry. It took me 10 years to find a semi stable job where I'm also paid well and treated well.
yup. gotta stay on edge and make sure to keep a healthy buffer. Because in these times it feels like a matter of when, not if. And ofc it's not limited to video games; those big tech companies all...
There's just no real job security in the industry right now.
yup. gotta stay on edge and make sure to keep a healthy buffer. Because in these times it feels like a matter of when, not if. And ofc it's not limited to video games; those big tech companies all had massive layoffs (but at least the pay there is way higher).
Something needs to change.
It's unfortunately more an effect of how at-will hiring works in most of the US. they can let you go for any reason outside of a few protected cases (and managers would be dumb to keep records like that around to become liable over). And of course, the company holds all the cards. There can be some worker's markets in select industries where it's easy to shop around, but companies can hire much easier than most workers can move around.
And for the non-AAA: it's another creative industry and the market is fickle. we had another story this week about how Mimimi Games (Shadow Tactics, Desperados 3) simply couldn't keep up with the stress of securing funding and called it quits. several games with a dedicated fanbase and they were still living on the edge. "Good game" doesn't guarantee success these days.
Pour one out for my homie Volition. You are too pure for this world, and its $2 billion investment restructuring deals. This studio will always have a place in my heart for making Saints Row IV...
Pour one out for my homie Volition. You are too pure for this world, and its $2 billion investment restructuring deals.
This studio will always have a place in my heart for making Saints Row IV run on my puny Switch and allowing me to experience the best ride-along sing-along in video game history.
Unlike their nominally named competition, Volition lived life large as rock stars who did whatever they pleased. With IV, they: *Released its first DLC for free on the same day GTA V was released...
Unlike their nominally named competition, Volition lived life large as rock stars who did whatever they pleased.
With IV, they:
*Released its first DLC for free on the same day GTA V was released
*Featured DLC ranging from the S&M-themed "Enter the Dominatrix" to a Christmas DLC
*Broke the fourth wall with their own employees in-game
*Broke the game's own canon to bring back past characters
It seemed they could do no wrong. Alas, we are now forever deprived of knowing how Jane Austen would have changed the Saints Row universe.
I loved saints row, but I feel weirdly alone in wishing they had done more with red faction. All 4 of them I sunk unreasonable playtime into. The open ended environmental destruction really did...
I loved saints row, but I feel weirdly alone in wishing they had done more with red faction. All 4 of them I sunk unreasonable playtime into. The open ended environmental destruction really did something for me. I have always held out hope that there would be another someday.
Chip Cheezum of SomethingAwful fame worked there and said it's not looking good. I wasn't aware the creator chose to literally spend his last days working on it, hopefully some guerilla...
Chip Cheezum of SomethingAwful fame worked there and said it's not looking good. I wasn't aware the creator chose to literally spend his last days working on it, hopefully some guerilla ex-employee shenanigans get it out of wherever it might be.
It's infuriating to think that all that work will likely go to waste. Not to mention, the guy sacrificed his last days working on it and corporate is just like "nah, fuck it", can you imagine?...
I wasn't aware the creator chose to literally spend his last days working on it
It's infuriating to think that all that work will likely go to waste. Not to mention, the guy sacrificed his last days working on it and corporate is just like "nah, fuck it", can you imagine? I've never had any good impressions about Embracer, but now they're very quickly getting up there with EA and Ubisoft as the triumvirate of shit.
hopefully some guerilla ex-employee shenanigans get it out of wherever it might be.
Honestly just dump it online so the community can work on it. That's what I'd like to see, because clearly nobody there gave a fuck about it besides IdolNinja anyways.
Volition Games is based in Champaign, Illinois, a large university town with a sizable research and development scene — but ultimately still a town in the middle of cornfield, Illinois. There...
Volition Games is based in Champaign, Illinois, a large university town with a sizable research and development scene — but ultimately still a town in the middle of cornfield, Illinois. There aren't any other game studios in Champaign. There are few software jobs outside of the university.
Some employees will have to uproot their families and lives.
There’s a fair amount of software jobs. Although middling overall, UIUC is one of the best CS programs in the country, often being in the top 5. As a result there’s a decent software scene in...
There’s a fair amount of software jobs. Although middling overall, UIUC is one of the best CS programs in the country, often being in the top 5. As a result there’s a decent software scene in Urbana-Champaign, as startups can have easier access to talent.
As added context - which I didn't even realize when posting this - Embracer Group timed this announcement with the review embargo/release of one of the biggest games this year, Starfield....
As added context - which I didn't even realize when posting this - Embracer Group timed this announcement with the review embargo/release of one of the biggest games this year, Starfield. Presumably to drown this under that flood.
Oh man, does this make me upset! Volition was one of my favorite western developers outside of the indie sphere, probably number 2 on the list, even. But at the same time, I was thinking this...
Oh man, does this make me upset! Volition was one of my favorite western developers outside of the indie sphere, probably number 2 on the list, even. But at the same time, I was thinking this would happen as soon as I learned that they were bought by Embracer.
I just hope the talent there can find places where they can be put to good use. Losing a job is never easy.
Same here, Freespace I & II are some of my favorite games, and very nostalgic to me. I always kind of held out hope that we might get a third to wrap up the story, but it was always unlikely. At...
Same here, Freespace I & II are some of my favorite games, and very nostalgic to me.
I always kind of held out hope that we might get a third to wrap up the story, but it was always unlikely.
At least we have the open source and modding teams to keep the game alive, not every game is so lucky.
Volition had no choice but to reboot Saints Row. When you go from being a knock-off of GTA that only succeeded because GTA4 was so shit, to the absurdity of Saints Row 4, there is no going back....
Volition had no choice but to reboot Saints Row. When you go from being a knock-off of GTA that only succeeded because GTA4 was so shit, to the absurdity of Saints Row 4, there is no going back.
Too realistic, ruined the wanted system to the point where you can get busted easily with a 1 star wanted level for being within five metres of a cop and having a gun pointed at your head. Also...
Too realistic, ruined the wanted system to the point where you can get busted easily with a 1 star wanted level for being within five metres of a cop and having a gun pointed at your head.
Also too much of a grounded story, had far fewer sandbox features and vehicle variety, and somehow GTA4 Liberty City felt smaller and more compacted than the version we had in GTA3.
Coming off from Vice City and San Andreas, 4 was a huge disappointment. San Andreas set the gold standard for open world sandbox crime simulators.
5 rectified a lot of these issues, and had Rockstar released single player standalone expansion packs for it instead of nickel and diming people with GTA Online, it would be the GOAT.
This sucks to hear. I hadn't played much of Volitions recent games as they weren't really games I play much but one of my favourite games from my youth was Red Faction, the geo mod stuff was...
This sucks to hear.
I hadn't played much of Volitions recent games as they weren't really games I play much but one of my favourite games from my youth was Red Faction, the geo mod stuff was pretty revolutionary in a 3d game at the time.
I used to speedrun the game with a personal best of 48 mins 25 secs. Although I haven't run the game in a couple of years now due to life getting in the way.
As someone in the industry it's really scary to think that any studio I work for could be snapped up by a conglomerate like Embracer and then shuttered with no warning. The loss of institutional knowledge is unbelievable.
Embracer is not good for the industry.
To be fair, Volition has had multiple financial bombs in a row. It’s not at all obvious that if they were independent they wouldn’t have been bankrupt anyway, if not even earlier.
Yeah, they have been running on Embracer's fumes for a while now.
Gat Out of Hell was 2015 - reviews were not super kind and it didn't seem to sell very well (for what it's worth, I enjoyed it).
Agents of Mayhem was 2017, again not super warmly received, and sales seemed pretty dismal. I remember I bought a copy of it maybe a year after it came out for $3 and never even touched it.
Then they didn't do anything new until the newest Saints Row which clearly sold way under what they needed it to do... it was the last chance and it was a miss.
Agents of Mayhem was in many ways Saints Row minus the fun characters and with a less open-ended demi-roleplaying structure, emphasizing the shooty actiony bits. Those bits are far from being bad, but personally that was just the parts of Saints Row that I kind of just put up with because I liked the other parts so much. One of the hallmarks of a great game is that it can get people to like it even when it's stuff they don't normally like, and Volition did that for me regularly.
I think from the article that Embracer shut them down more because of their financial troubles moreso than their relative failure with Saints Row. In spite of this and my genuinely low opinion of them, I don't think they're quite that heartless.
I didn't even know the new saints row was out. I saw the trailer, but every trailer I've seen at e3, or similar events, usually means the game will be out in the next 8 years.
As someone hoping to get into the industry (and as a writer, so it's even harder since those are usually exclusively contract jobs), I'm always uneasy at how unstable the industry is. Even if they don't get snapped up and shut down by a conglomerate, big studios can fold due to a couple flops. Then you have indie studios that get too big, too fast, which leads to decisions to try to appeal to investors to meet fans' demands and expectations for bigger games and stay afloat, and then many of them fold too.
I remember one developer realized they'd developed PTSD from all the layoffs. They'd gotten laid off at one company, got another job and within a couple months there was a surprise round of layoffs there. Described the atmosphere as tense and almost funeral-like at the office afterwards, everyone just on edge. The worst part is there's often no warning. I remember following the Telltale closure closely and they literally found out they had no longer had jobs when they went to work that morning. Absolutely zero warning period, no time to start searching for another job. At least many of them found new work thanks to the #TellTaleJobs hashtag on Twitter, but having to find a job on short notice in a high cost-of-living area is rough.
There's just no real job security in the industry right now. No guarantee that a studio will stay around unless it's one of the MAJOR ones, and even then there's plenty of turnover and burnout. Something needs to change.
I mean it kinda is what it is. If anything is changing, it’s that the rise of Games as a Service, subscriptions, and micro transactions are smoothing out previously spiky income graphs.
But as long as games are a release oriented industry, this is what happens. When your company’s future all lies on one release, when there’s so much random stuff that can derail it, it’s unstable. It’s no different in the movie industry, other than that most people there don’t even get to be salaried employees, and are all on contract.
Yeah, which I still hate. I'm an only child and never got into competitive online gaming, which most "games as a service" are. I value good single-player games, especially those with a narrative, which can be tricky to find these days. It's frustrating how so many big studios are going for the micro transactions with such obvious greed and neglecting good gameplay balance.
I think part of the issue is just how big games have gotten. The first Legend of Zelda game had a team of six. Tears of the Kingdom meanwhile had 1,148. Obviously Nintendo isn't the norm, but I think that shows just how complex games have become in the last 30 years. The technology has advanced rapidly, and with it so did the costs and work needed to make each one. The bigger the studio and title, the more needed to make it.
They're also not as accessible as movies, due to both players' skill level/mechanics, and also literal access since they're limited to specific consoles. Anyone can watch movies as long as they have a TV or computer that can play DVD, Blu-ray or VHS, there's no skill barrier. But not everyone will have the reflexes needed for rhythm games, or an interest in turn-based strategy games, or the time to devote 100 hours to a game versus 2-3 hours for a movie.
By default, games have a smaller audience than movies do, so that already cuts the potential profits. And the intensive work, resources, time and money needed for making the bigger games limits their ability to develop and release multiple games each year. The major studios like Nintendo are fine, but for other studios, especially those that grew too fast, they can only really afford to work on one game at a time, which makes the releases big gambles that can sink or save the company.
It's an issue with no real resolution I can think of, at least off the top of my head. Scale and being "too big" is an issue in every industry, but it's especially noticeable in gaming.
The problem is more of a lack of diversification. When you have all your eggs in one basket and that basket breaks, you run out of eggs.
In the past, big game companies were not big because they were all working on single projects at a time. Konami had a seperate divisions for arcade games, console games, and computer games, and each of those divisions had internal teams working on different projects. If a team was unsuccessful once, they'd try again with the lessons they'd learned. If they continually failed, they would reshuffle the team around, and firings were localized largely to people who could be identified as underperforming.
Now that I think about it, I think that things are still largely the same, just the way they are organized is a little different. Embracer tried to do this to an extent with Volition; they made them a subsidiary of Gearbox before this happened. The problem seems to be that Embracer is just doing their business badly. From what I understand, they made a two billion dollar bet and lost, and they decided that Volition was the watch they'd pawn to pay off their gambling debts.
I really don't think that's the case any more, at least not to a meaningful degree. If you include mobile gaming, games are much, much bigger by revenue than movies as an industry. The success of mobile gaming is a big part of the reason why so many traditional video games companies are chasing microtransactions and GaaS like they are.
I talking about individual games, not gaming as a whole. Anyone can go to a movie theater, most people own a DVD player or at least a TV. Meanwhile most movies are under 3 hours, so it's easy to agree to see one with someone even if it isn't a film you'd go out of your way to see on your own.
The minimum bar for playing a game is owning a console or computer the specific game works on. Then you have further limitations through skill level and genre, which will further limit the audience. The time commitment needed for games versus movies will further shrink the audience, since not many people would be willing to buy a game with a 12 hour campaign in a genre they don't like.
Movies are just easier to access than games.
Yes. I'm a game writer and have genuine significant trauma from working conditions in the industry. It took me 10 years to find a semi stable job where I'm also paid well and treated well.
yup. gotta stay on edge and make sure to keep a healthy buffer. Because in these times it feels like a matter of when, not if. And ofc it's not limited to video games; those big tech companies all had massive layoffs (but at least the pay there is way higher).
It's unfortunately more an effect of how at-will hiring works in most of the US. they can let you go for any reason outside of a few protected cases (and managers would be dumb to keep records like that around to become liable over). And of course, the company holds all the cards. There can be some worker's markets in select industries where it's easy to shop around, but companies can hire much easier than most workers can move around.
And for the non-AAA: it's another creative industry and the market is fickle. we had another story this week about how Mimimi Games (Shadow Tactics, Desperados 3) simply couldn't keep up with the stress of securing funding and called it quits. several games with a dedicated fanbase and they were still living on the edge. "Good game" doesn't guarantee success these days.
Pour one out for my homie Volition. You are too pure for this world, and its $2 billion investment restructuring deals.
This studio will always have a place in my heart for making Saints Row IV run on my puny Switch and allowing me to experience the best ride-along sing-along in video game history.
IV doesn't get enough love. It was a labor of love, dangit.
Unlike their nominally named competition, Volition lived life large as rock stars who did whatever they pleased.
With IV, they:
*Released its first DLC for free on the same day GTA V was released
*Featured DLC ranging from the S&M-themed "Enter the Dominatrix" to a Christmas DLC
*Broke the fourth wall with their own employees in-game
*Broke the game's own canon to bring back past characters
It seemed they could do no wrong. Alas, we are now forever deprived of knowing how Jane Austen would have changed the Saints Row universe.
I loved saints row, but I feel weirdly alone in wishing they had done more with red faction. All 4 of them I sunk unreasonable playtime into. The open ended environmental destruction really did something for me. I have always held out hope that there would be another someday.
Dropping a remastered version of Red Faction: Guerrilla and just giving it to every person who had the base game on Steam was a true good-guy move.
We're never getting that Saints Row 2 patch for PC now, are we? sigh
Chip Cheezum of SomethingAwful fame worked there and said it's not looking good. I wasn't aware the creator chose to literally spend his last days working on it, hopefully some guerilla ex-employee shenanigans get it out of wherever it might be.
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/264211267261038593/1147200809570943117/image0.png
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/264211267261038593/1147200843100196994/image0.png
It's infuriating to think that all that work will likely go to waste. Not to mention, the guy sacrificed his last days working on it and corporate is just like "nah, fuck it", can you imagine? I've never had any good impressions about Embracer, but now they're very quickly getting up there with EA and Ubisoft as the triumvirate of shit.
Honestly just dump it online so the community can work on it. That's what I'd like to see, because clearly nobody there gave a fuck about it besides IdolNinja anyways.
That ship sailed a few years back, I'm afraid. There was no way to monetize it.
Volition Games is based in Champaign, Illinois, a large university town with a sizable research and development scene — but ultimately still a town in the middle of cornfield, Illinois. There aren't any other game studios in Champaign. There are few software jobs outside of the university.
Some employees will have to uproot their families and lives.
There’s a fair amount of software jobs. Although middling overall, UIUC is one of the best CS programs in the country, often being in the top 5. As a result there’s a decent software scene in Urbana-Champaign, as startups can have easier access to talent.
As added context - which I didn't even realize when posting this - Embracer Group timed this announcement with the review embargo/release of one of the biggest games this year, Starfield. Presumably to drown this under that flood.
Oh man, does this make me upset! Volition was one of my favorite western developers outside of the indie sphere, probably number 2 on the list, even. But at the same time, I was thinking this would happen as soon as I learned that they were bought by Embracer.
I just hope the talent there can find places where they can be put to good use. Losing a job is never easy.
Who is your number 1 then?
Monolith Productions. The guys who made FEAR and the Mordor games.
Everyobe here mentions Saints Row, but I really love their Conflict: Freespace. What a great story driven space shooter!
Same here, Freespace I & II are some of my favorite games, and very nostalgic to me.
I always kind of held out hope that we might get a third to wrap up the story, but it was always unlikely.
At least we have the open source and modding teams to keep the game alive, not every game is so lucky.
Volition had no choice but to reboot Saints Row. When you go from being a knock-off of GTA that only succeeded because GTA4 was so shit, to the absurdity of Saints Row 4, there is no going back.
It's a shame that Saints Row 2022 was so mid.
Wait, I thought gtaIv was the great, why was it shit?
GTA IV is the highest rated GTA game. No idea what they're talking about.
Too realistic, ruined the wanted system to the point where you can get busted easily with a 1 star wanted level for being within five metres of a cop and having a gun pointed at your head.
Also too much of a grounded story, had far fewer sandbox features and vehicle variety, and somehow GTA4 Liberty City felt smaller and more compacted than the version we had in GTA3.
Coming off from Vice City and San Andreas, 4 was a huge disappointment. San Andreas set the gold standard for open world sandbox crime simulators.
5 rectified a lot of these issues, and had Rockstar released single player standalone expansion packs for it instead of nickel and diming people with GTA Online, it would be the GOAT.
This sucks to hear.
I hadn't played much of Volitions recent games as they weren't really games I play much but one of my favourite games from my youth was Red Faction, the geo mod stuff was pretty revolutionary in a 3d game at the time.
I used to speedrun the game with a personal best of 48 mins 25 secs. Although I haven't run the game in a couple of years now due to life getting in the way.