Highlights

  • Former members of Volition have formed a new development company called Shapeshifter Games, offering co-development services for AAA games.
  • Shapeshifter Games has brought in several veterans from Volition, including studio heads and designers, to work on co-developing a project with Xbox Games Studios.
  • Embracer continues to restructure, laying off employees and closing studios, with the latest involving Black Forest Games.

Former members of Volition, a studio known for franchises like Saints Row and Red Faction, have banded together to start a new development company called Shapeshifter Games. Embracer Group, formerly known as THQ Nordic and the Nordic Games Licensing prior to that, has continued to scoop up assets over the past 10 years or so, including assets from THQ, Crystal Dynamics, and tons of different IPs. Unfortunately, recent times have not been quite as kind, as a reported failed deal between Embracer and Savvy Gaming Group, forced the company to announce a large scale restructuring plan involving studio closures and staff reductions.

As staff were laid off and projects canceled, one of the studios to shut down was Volition, which was one of the original THQ assets Deep Silver acquired before being purchased by Embracer in 2018. The studio had become well known for the Saints Row series, though the studio's final two launches of Agents of Mayhem and the franchise reboot Saints Row, found a dedicated smaller audience but largely failed to resonate with consumers. As such, Embracer announced that Voltion would be shut down on August 31, 2023, prompting the studio to post one final heartfelt message to fans. However, our of the ashes of Volition has seen the rise of a new studio with a number of veterans from the Champaign, Illinois company.

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The announcement comes from a post on LinkedIn by Matt Madigan, the studio head at Shapeshifter Games. Madigan reveals that Shapeshifter Games is a co-development partner for AAA games, meaning they're going to assist other developers/publishers with their projects. Located in Champaign, the studio also appears to have work as the profile of lighting artist AJ Nelson, who arrived from Immortals of Aveum developer Ascendant Studios, seemingly confirmed that Shapeshifter is currently co-developing a project with Xbox Games Strudios. Unfortunately, no additional details were provided.

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Former Volition Developers at Shapeshifter

In addition to Madigan, who previously served in various financial roles with Volition, THQ, and Koch Media, Shapeshifter has managed to bring in a number of veterans from the Saints Row studio. This includes people like Rob Loftus and Brian Traficante, who are serving as dual studio heads, at Shapeshifter. Others include longtime Volition level designers like Jeff Touchstone and Chad Dodson, software engineer David Andsager, quest designer Alex Cline, along with designers Darren Dienst and Bryan Dillow.

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.

While the Volition closure ultimately had a happy ending for many, Embracer looks to be gearing up for another round of layoffs. Last week saw additional layoffs hit Black Forest Games, a studio which has become known for the Destroy All Humans franchise, but was currently working on a video game adaptation of the popular comic series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin. Reports indicated that around 50% of the workforce was reduced, which continued the rough trend of layoffs and closures happening to the gaming industry so far in 2024.