Deep Silver Volition

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Deep Silver Volition, LLC

logo
legal form Division of Koch Media
founding November 1996
Seat Champaign , Illinois , United StatesUnited StatesUnited States 
management Dan Cermak (General Manager)
Number of employees 220 (as of 2011)
Branch Software development
Website www.dsvolition.com

Deep Silver Volition , LLC (formerly Volition , Inc.) (English for wool or willpower , see (Volition psychology) ) is an American game development - companies and is headquartered in Champaign , Illinois .

history

Splitting of Parallax software and the Interplay era

On June 1, 1993, Matt Toschlog and Mike Kulas founded the Parallax Software development studio in Champaign, Illinois. After initial unsuccessful commissioned work for Apogee Software , the company succeeded in gaining a partner for its first game Descent in the publisher Interplay Entertainment . After the successful publication of the direct successor Descent 2 , the two studio founders thought about relocating the company headquarters. However, since both could not commit to a common location, they finally agreed to split the company in November 1996. Toschlog then founded the new studio Outrage Entertainment in Ann Arbor (Michigan) with part of the Parallax workforce , which later Descent 3 and Alter Echo , acquired by THQ in 2002 and disbanded in 2004. The remaining workforce under Mike Kulas formed Volition, Inc.

Outrage and Volition each received a development contract for two further titles from their previous partner Interplay Entertainment . Outrage took over the work on Descent 3 , while Descent 4 was to come from Volition afterwards. The first title of Volition, however, was the space flight simulation Descent: Freespace - The Great War , which, despite the similarity of names, had no relation to the Descent series and was marketed in Europe under the title Conflict: Freespace . The game proved to be successful, so that the successor Freespace 2 was released just a year later . Although Volition received numerous awards for this high level of critical praise, the game was no longer sold and the company only made a small profit. The reasons for this were, among other things, a lack of marketing, the decline of the joystick control and the associated space flight simulations as well as the increasing loss of importance of the PC as a gaming platform.

Takeover by THQ

In parallel to Freespace 2 and Descent 4 , Volition also worked on a role-playing game that was to be released for the launch of the PlayStation 2 in the USA. However, since the previous business partner Interplay had enough of their own projects in the role-play area and Volition had also stopped work on Descent 4 , the company needed a new sales partner for its upcoming title. The American publisher THQ signaled interest in taking over the studio in order to strengthen its own development capacities. The takeover was finally sealed on August 31, 2000. THQ paid for the acquisition with a million stock shares and assumed approximately $ 500,000 in net debt from the developer. The total volume of the deal was estimated at $ 21.25 million. In October 2000, Volition finally published the role-playing game Summoner through the new parent company , which was also Volition's first game for a console platform.

In addition to the direct successor Summoner 2 , the studio has since developed some well-known game titles and series for THQ such as the Red Faction series, the first part of which was based on the code base of the discontinued Descent 4 , the companion game to the movie The Punisher and Saints Row - Line. During the Spike Video Game Awards 2010 , THQ also announced that Volition was collaborating with Hollywood director Guillermo del Toro on a horror game called Insane .

On September 22, 2011, founder Mike Kulas resigned from his position as company president and left the company. His successor as studio manager was the long-time vice president Dan Cermak. After THQ's serious financial problems, which became known at the end of December 2011, the parent company concentrated its business activities on high-quality game productions. Volition was therefore one of the THQ development studios that were largely spared from the extensive savings measures and closings. In August 2012, however, THQ announced the discontinuation of the Insane project at Volition and returned the rights to director del Toro. When THQ went bankrupt, Volition and the Saints Row license were sold to German publisher Koch Media at auction on January 23, 2013 for $ 22.3 million .

Developed video games

Publishing year title Platforms
1998 Conflict: Freespace - The Great War Windows
1999 Freespace 2 Windows
2001 Summoner Mac , Windows, PlayStation 2
2001 Red Faction Mac, N-Gage , PlayStation 2, Windows
2002 Summoner 2 N-Gage, PlayStation 2
2002 Red Faction II GameCube , PlayStation 2, Windows, Xbox
2005 The Punisher PlayStation 2, Windows, Xbox
2006 Saints Row Xbox 360
2008 Saints Row 2 Linux , PlayStation 3 , Windows, Xbox 360
2009 Red Faction: Guerrilla PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360
2011 Red Faction: Armageddon PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360
2011 Saints Row: The Third Linux, PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360, Nintendo Switch
2013 Saints Row IV Linux, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 , Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One
2015 Saints Row: Gat out of Hell Linux, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One
2017 Agents of Mayhem PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Ben Hanson: The Secret History of Volition ( English ) In: Game Informer . GameStop . March 30, 2011. Retrieved July 6, 2012.
  2. ^ Dan Lee Rogers: The End Game: How Top Developers Sold Their Studios - Part One (English) . In: Gamasutra , UBM, plc , March 3, 2004. Retrieved July 9, 2012. 
  3. ↑ Amer Ajami: ECTS: THQ Acquires Volition (English) . In: GameSpot , CBS Interactive , September 5, 2000. Retrieved July 7, 2012. 
  4. ↑ David Hinkle: Guillermo Del Toro's inSane finally revealed ( English ) In: Joystiq . AOL . December 11, 2010. Retrieved July 7, 2012.
  5. ↑ Don Dodson: Founder leaves Volition ( English ) In: The News-Gazette . Professional Impressions Media Group . April 27, 2011. Retrieved July 6, 2012.
  6. ↑ Thank You, Mike! ( English ) In: Official website . Volition, Inc .. September 22, 2011. Retrieved July 6, 2012.
  7. ↑ http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/25/thq-moving-away-from-kids-licensed-entertainment-saints-row/
  8. ↑ http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/26/thq-incurs-more-layoffs-five-internal-studios-not-affected/
  9. ↑ http://www.golem.de/news/thq-gewinn-rauf-del-toro-raus-1208-93682.html
  10. ↑ Sebastian Jäger: SEGA takes over Relic, Koch Media Volition and Metro, Ubisoft South Park * Update * . In: Gamona . Webguidez Entertainment. January 23, 2013. Retrieved January 24, 2013.