Cognition Dissemination: Un-Embrace
Embracer Group’s extraordinarily risky mass acquisition quest over the last few years was bound to result in eventual bad news if they didn’t have solid plans. This has now fully bubbled onto the surface. The company announced that Volition Games, known for developing the Saints Row and Red Faction series, has been shuttered. This was less a surprise and more an inevitability after Embracer admitted that the new Saints Row released last year sold below expectations. It followed another Volition title, Agents of Mayhem, that also underperformed. But this is nonetheless a bitter and anticlimactic end for a company that existed for 30 years — originally as Parallax Software Corporation before becoming Volition in 1996.
It’s more bitter considering what partly led to Saints Row’s failure. The game was thrown into the perpetually-burning culture war vat upon its reveal, all for daring to make a young black woman the main face of the promotional campaign despite the protagonist remaining fully customizable. That will get a game and company labeled as “woke” these days, something the internet’s largest dolts still can’t properly and consistently define despite it being very clear what they mean by it. I’m not saying this was the new Saints Row’s only fault, as it launched in a messy state despite receiving a lengthy delay. Its core content was also harshly criticized by several who aren’t down the rabbit hole. But culture war crap nonetheless contributed to its failure. The game’s underperformance first resulted in Embracer moving Volition under Borderlands developer Gearbox Software, but that lasted for less than a year.
Speaking of them: Layoffs hit Gearbox too. Talk about a miniature Thursday Afternoon Massacre.
The way in which Embracer went about this revealed how terrible of a company they are. They first shuttered Volition without an announcement, with the company’s now-ex-employees confirming it randomly on Twitter. Worse, they did it after the review embargo for the highly-anticipated Starfield was lifted, a way to try and bury the studio closure news in that madness on social media. This was alone a low-down and vile maneuver, which showed anyone skeptical of Embracer for so long that they’re just as disgusting as a company as they thought.
That’s still not the entire story. This is worse than other studio closures because of Volition’s location. They were a rare sizable game development studio in the American Midwest, specifically in Champaign, Illinois. It will be considerably more difficult for its former developers to find gaming industry work compared to others who’ve recently been laid off thanks to their need to relocate to other states, most likely on the West Coast. They’ll have to get those new jobs quickly, too, because Embracer’s closure of the studio on the last day of the month led to the employees immediately losing their healthcare coverage. Who knew that attaching healthcare to employment would have dire consequences? Embracer knew what they were doing here, which means they’re actually not as bad as those aforementioned skeptics thought: They’re worse.
Embracer, through subsidiary Deep Silver, subsequently noted that the Saints Row and Red Faction franchises will continue, as if to spit on the portions of Volition’s grave they missed. Truly a move from one of the most tactless companies around. Should the franchises continue, they’ll likely be in the form of lower-budget titles akin to Darksiders Genesis.
This closure was also inevitable thanks to Embracer’s current predicament. The company had long been working on a deal for a $2 billion investment so they could further fund all the studios they’d purchased and acquire more, only for it to fall through. The identity of this other party was revealed to be Savvy Games Group, one owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (and, it follows, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman — this is how things work in autocracies). The reason why is unknown, but this undoubtedly sent a shudder through Embracer — perhaps literally in the case of CEO Lars Wingefors upon realizing the deal collapsed. This is yet another example of lower-level employees suffering for idiotic mistakes made by those well above them.
It’s also clear that Volition’s closure and the Gearbox layoffs are only the beginning for Embracer’s bleeding. They’ll need to make up for that bulbous $2 billion (billion) that went down the drain somehow. They’re unlikely to come through the higher-ups taking a pay cut or the entire company having a leadership shuffle. This is what happens when a company goes on a mass acquisition spree and doesn’t consider whether the payoff will be worth it.
Best of luck to the many grunt employees under Embracer, those undoubtedly shivering at the thought of being unemployed in months — or even weeks. The entire company’s future will be resting on potential successes like the upcoming Tomb Raider game from Crystal Dynamics (being funded in likely-big part by Amazon) and the just-delayed and star-powered new Alone in the Dark game. May the laid-off employees land on their feet sooner rather than later.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
