Saints Row developer Volition will become part of Borderlands maker Gearbox, Embracer announced today.
The announcement by Embracer – the parent company of both studios – comes on the same day Volition finally released the “Bright Future” update for its beleagured Saints Row reboot, which belatedly fixes several hundred bugs present since the games launch back in August.
For fans who enjoyed Saints Row, Volitions move places the future of that franchise in doubt.
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A press release from Volition today stated that the Bright Future patch was “just the start” of support for Sains Row “in 2022 and beyond”, without going into specifics.
Back in October, the developer said it was committed to supporting Saints Row in the “long-term”, but would have “preferred to be talking about roadmaps and expansions” for the game instead of being forced to prioritise bug-fixes.
Its unclear how the news that Volition will now become part of Gearbox affects pre-existing content plans.
In a financial update issued last night, Embracer said that “the reception of Saints Row did not meet the full expectations and left the fanbase partially polarised”, even if “financially… Saints Row has performed in line with management expectations”.
Addressing its decision to move the Saints Row developer to become part of Gearbox, Embracer said the latter “has all the tools, including an experienced management team in the US, to create future success at Volition”.
There was no mention made of any plans to grow Saints Row as a franchise going forward.