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Volition Veterans Form New Studio Shapeshifter Games, Working on Xbox Game Studios Project

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Thick Thighs Save Lives

NeoGAF's Physical Games Advocate Extraordinaire
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A group of veteran developers who used to work at Saints Row studio Volition teamed up to form a new studio, named Shapeshifter Games.

The studio, revealed on Linkedin, is headquartered in Champaign, Illinois, and is intended to be a co-development studio.

This means that the plan is to partner with other developers and publishers to support them in the creation of their AAA games.
Studio head Matt Madigan mentions that the goal is "to grow and assist developers and publishers by providing a sustainable workforce model."

More relevant names from Volition are principal producer Rob Loftus, who has taken on the role of studio director - production at Shapeshifter, while franchise creative director Brian Traficante takes on the equivalent role on the creative side.

Traficante himself commented on his own LinkedIn page mentioning that "Working with talented, familiar faces fills him with joy." Loftus mentions that he's "Fortunate to reconnect with colleagues and turn the page on a new adventure," adding that he's hopeful for the formation of similar groups and brighter days ahead.
Among the listed employees on LinkedIn, we see six more veterans from the former team at Volition plus one from Immortals of Aveum developer Ascendant Studios, which was also recently hit by layoffs. Shapeshifter is also currently hiring a Lead Software Engineer.

According to the listing, the studio specializes in open-world games, Unreal Engine 5, console development, and co-development. Interestingly, according to the profile of AJ Nelson, it appears that Shapeshifter is already working as a co-developer on a project for Xbox Game Studios.
 
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ungalo

Member
Saints Row devs x Immortals of Aveum devs x Xbox, what can go wrong ?

edit : oh it's just a support studio
 
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Hudo

Member
Microsoft really fired people who had experience with developing CoD, only to hire the people who made the worst Saints Row of all time? A game so bad that it destroyed their studio. Am I getting this right?
We don't really know who Microsoft fired. Did they get rid of some dead-weight danger hair people or actual developers? Because most people on humanity's garbage bin (Twitter) lamenting this shit are 99% of the former category.
 
They fired around 35% of Sledgehammer games and more than 40% of Toys for Bob.
Sledgehammer Games and Toys for Bob were two studios that were effectively diluted down creatively in the past 5 years to become nothing more than support studios to fill in the gap between Infinity Ward and Treyarch marquee COD titles. MWIII is the first time these two support studios were given complete charge of a mainline COD and it has become one of the most panned and content weak COD titles in the last decade. Why are we pretending like they were the team that made COD special?
 

intbal

Member
"According to the listing, the studio specializes in open-world games, Unreal Engine 5..."

I guess Embracer still owns all of Volition's tech, so they can't use their own engine, unless they make a new one from scratch.
That's a shame. Volition did have good technology. The last game had plenty of gameplay bugs (and design problems), but it was a good engine.
 

Majormaxxx

Member
"to grow and assist developers and publishers by providing a sustainable workforce model."

Seems they will provide a contractor service for others' projects?
 
Yes, firing people who had years of experience in making one of the most successful games of all time and replacing them with people who made one of the worst games of all time is horrible.
Wasn't this forum completely destroying MWIII a few weeks for being the worst COD game in the last decade and being a complete rip-off for having so little content? Why are we suddenly so protective of the people who delivered that trash?
 

xrnzaaas

Member
They didn't show anything good from a technical standpoint in Saints Row. Dunno why would anyone want to hire them for their "expertise" unless they'll transform again into Sweet Baby Inc. 2.0.
 

eerik9000

Member
Microsoft really fired people who had experience with developing CoD, only to hire the people who made the worst Saints Row of all time? A game so bad that it destroyed their studio. Am I getting this right?
Yes. Their acquisitions are driven by existing IP and back catalogue, not by experience and talent. They can and will outsource most of the development to people who will do it for cheap.
 
Not super surprising. With hundreds of people without a job it's bound to happen that some will try to start another studio or start their first own (maybe smaller) studio. Let's all hope that some of the new studios will be headed by a (new) leadership keeping the people out that were responsible for their downfall while installing and promoting the right people in the core positions.
 

Aion002

Member
Wasn't this forum completely destroying MWIII a few weeks for being the worst COD game in the last decade and being a complete rip-off for having so little content? Why are we suddenly so protective of the people who delivered that trash?
Well, the worst COD game in the last decade still is miles better than the last Saint's Row game for most people.

Also, in my opinion, the latest zombie mode from CoD is amazing.... asking 70 usd for it is a lot... But still...

Season 11 Hbo GIF by Curb Your Enthusiasm
 

wvnative

Member
Did they mostly make saints row or saints woke.
They wanted to make saints row, the dumbasses at the top forced them to make it saints woke despite the devs repeatedly warning it was a mistake.

One of few examples of it wasn't actually the devs themselves.
 

StueyDuck

Member
They wanted to make saints row, the dumbasses at the top forced them to make it saints woke despite the devs repeatedly warning it was a mistake.

One of few examples of it wasn't actually the devs themselves.
I just wanna know if it's the guys with the skills or not.

Will be curious to see what they turn out
 

justiceiro

Marlboro: Other M
Lol, traficante means smuggler in my native language.

Also, damm, Xbox acquired this one before they even formed.
 
Season 4 Wow GIF by The Office


I was actually joking when I said Microsoft should pick these guys up.
I wasn’t. I called this. MS picked them up as they should have. Embracer is a leaky ship and it’s a free for all when it comes to poaching talent. Sony isn’t as good at grabbing American devs as MS.

My next guess: ex-Deus Ex devs to announce a new studio, potentially acquired by MS.
 

GHG

Member
I wasn’t. I called this. MS picked them up as they should have. Embracer is a leaky ship and it’s a free for all when it comes to poaching talent. Sony isn’t as good at grabbing American devs as MS.

My next guess: ex-Deus Ex devs to announce a new studio, potentially acquired by MS.

If these are the guys responsible for the latest saints row game then "talented" isn't how I'd describe them.
 
If these are the guys responsible for the latest saints row game then "talented" isn't how I'd describe them.
If a developer makes a bunch of decent-to-good B and AA games and then makes one bad, low budget, rushed AAA game, does that overall make them a bad developer?
 

GHG

Member
If a developer makes a bunch of decent-to-good B and AA games and then makes one bad, low budget, rushed AAA game, does that overall make them a bad developer?

Considering what the latest saints row was, what It stood for and the fact that they wholeheartedly stood behind it, yes it does make them a bad developer.
 
Considering what the latest saints row was, what It stood for and the fact that they wholeheartedly stood behind it, yes it does make them a bad developer.
What something stands for doesn’t make it bad. Being a buggy, glitchy, unfinished mess of a video game with badly designed missions is what makes it bad.

Your implication is that any game with any sort of messaging and/or modern day west coast US sensibilities is a bad game, but the review numbers for other games of that ilk all ranging from very high to very low means that the numbers aren’t adding up.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Depends on which members. The Saints Row reboot or whatever it is, is the worst game I’ve ever played.
So if it’s the scrubs that made that, then pass. They should be scrubbing toilets instead of making games.

If it’s the real Volition then that’s great news.
 

GHG

Member
What something stands for doesn’t make it bad. Being a buggy, glitchy, unfinished mess of a video game with badly designed missions is what makes it bad.

Your implication is that any game with any sort of messaging and/or modern day west coast US sensibilities is a bad game, but the review numbers for other games of that ilk all ranging from very high to very low means that the numbers aren’t adding up.

They had 2 duds in a row.

The most recent one being a game where they were more focused on pushing an ideology/agenda than they were creating a good game that people could play and enjoy.

So good luck to anyone across the industry who has picked up those involved.
 
You can't tell me that Activision/Blizzard doesn't entice the top video game developers in the industry. Which is why it is so surprising how many were let go. In reality, Microsoft wanted to save money. They would rather pay "contractors" half the wage 18months at a time rather than pay for premium developers. Microsoft is probably paying Volition employees pennies on the dollar compared to recently fired Activision/Blizzard employeees
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Microsoft really fired people who had experience with developing CoD, only to hire the people who made the worst Saints Row of all time? A game so bad that it destroyed their studio. Am I getting this right?

They made their own new studio, not an MS studio. MS is just hiring them for a project.

It's in the OP.
 

Yoboman

Member
Sledgehammer Games and Toys for Bob were two studios that were effectively diluted down creatively in the past 5 years to become nothing more than support studios to fill in the gap between Infinity Ward and Treyarch marquee COD titles. MWIII is the first time these two support studios were given complete charge of a mainline COD and it has become one of the most panned and content weak COD titles in the last decade. Why are we pretending like they were the team that made COD special?
You think they won't be making new CODs still? Pretending those layoffs were for quality control is straight up delusion. They will be making COD with even less resources. Let's not forget they had to make it in 14 months with 2023 originally supposed to be a gap year for COD as well. Probably a consequence of MS buying and not accepting a year of declined revenue
 

Ozriel

M$FT
Microsoft really fired people who had experience with developing CoD, only to hire the people who made the worst Saints Row of all time? A game so bad that it destroyed their studio. Am I getting this right?
Was the OP truly that hard to read?
 
They had 2 duds in a row.

The most recent one being a game where they were more focused on pushing an ideology/agenda than they were creating a good game that people could play and enjoy.
If we're going to play this game and say that Agents of Mayhem was a bad video game instead of just an average/decent game, then we will have to add Saints Row: Gat out of Hell to that equation because it was average as well. Hell, some people even hate Saints Row 4.

The problem is that people don't want to go down this route because then it breaks this whole 'agenda' argument into a larger argument about the fact that Volition has always made games of a varied quality, because those who make these agenda claims know that once you start to retroactively apply agendas to past video games, it all starts to sound a bit ridiculous 🤷‍♂️
 
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GHG

Member
So if Suicide Squad flops, the guys are RockSteady have no talent? And all the people demanding they “go back to making Batman games” are deluded?

Depends on if the guys who even made the batman games are still there or not.

I'd say it's likely they aren't and that a lot of the ones who contributed positively to the previous games jumped ship the moment they were told what they would have to make going forwards.

If we're going to play this game and say that Agents of Mayhem was a bad video game instead of just an average/decent game, then we will have to add Saints Row: Gat out of Hell to that equation because it was average as well. Hell, some people even hate Saints Row 4.

The problem is that people don't want to go down this route because then it breaks this whole 'agenda' argument into a larger argument about the fact that Volition has always made games of a varied quality, because those who make these agenda claims know that once you start to retroactively apply agendas to past video games, it all starts to sound a bit ridiculous 🤷‍♂️

When you combine all the woke crap with the fact that they haven't made a decent game in ages, you're left with a bunch of devs who have little to no redeeming qualities.
 
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When you combine all the woke crap with the fact that they haven't made a decent game in ages, you're left with a bunch of devs who have little to no redeeming qualities.
As I've said, they are a dev of variable quality.

Let's not pretend that Red Faction 2 wasn't a step down from 1. Let's not pretend that Saints Row 1 was a very rough game trying to be GTA. Let's not pretend that Red Faction: Armageddon didn't exist. I guess we are also just ignoring/disregarding the history of THQ Nordic and their devs being passed around like a basketball, multiple games of theirs being stuck in development hell, and the rapid increase development prices when this was all happening.

Quick question for you, when woke/agenda games end up being good games, do you just consider those as multiple flukes?
 
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