Search
Search
Sign on Options
Theme: [Light Selected] To Dark»

Volition had six interested buyers - Report

Eddie Makuch
By Eddie Makuch, News Editor

Saints Row studio manager says WB, EA, Take-Two, and Ubisoft all showed interest in company; no layoffs after sale, though name may change.

Six different companies entertained the possibility of buying Saints Row studio Volition Inc. before it was eventually sold to Deep Silver parent company Koch Media last week, general manager Dan Cermak told The News Gazette.

Warner Bros., Electronic Arts, Take-Two, Ubisoft, Koch Media, and an unnamed group from Chicago all completed site visits in the weeks preceding the sale, he said.

However, only two companies--Koch Media and Ubisoft--submitted bids for Volition, with Koch Media's $22.3 million offer well ahead of the French publisher's $5.4 million bid.

Koch Media had 390 employees prior to the purchase and will take on all 185 Volition staffers. There will not be any layoffs and compensation packages are consistent, Cermak said.

What may change, though, is Volition's name. "Deep Silver Volition" is reportedly among the names being considered, Cermak said. Cermak also confirmed that Koch Media did not acquire the Red Faction franchise, the fate of which lies in limbo.

Cermak said the sale to Koch Media is a "very positive situation for us." He noted that because Koch Media is a private company, it does not face many of the pressures THQ did as a publicly traded entity, like meeting quarterly financial benchmarks.

Eddie Makuch
By Eddie Makuch, News Editor

Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.

63 comments
  Livefyre
Newest | Oldest
kungfuj0
kungfuj0

I am glad Take Two didn't get Volition.  It wouldn't be right for GTA and SR to be under the same roof.  That **** might cause a rift in the space-time continuum or something!

Seriously though, SR is really the only worthy rival to GTA, and if Take Two had gotten it, they probably would have either closed up shop on it or they would have made it so nonsensical that would couldn't have taken it seriously anymore, and we could BARELY take it seriously as it was after SR3 and its purple ...'bat'.

I wouldn't have minded if WB got it though.  Imagine Ed Boon sticking his hands into the world of SR, or maybe an SR/Justice League crossover or something!  All kinds of possibilities would have come with that acquisition if it had happened!

I am glad EA didn't get it.  I never thought anyone could suck the life out of Bioware, but EA did.  If they can do that to Bioware, Volition wouldn't have stood a chance in hell!

Timmy_Gwar
Timmy_Gwar like.author.displayName 1 Like

Make a good red faction game again. Like, Guerrilla with actual destructible terrain like in the first game. Not "destructible environments" aka invinsible rocks and papier maché buildings.

Ladiesman17
Ladiesman17

@Timmy_Gwar 


yeah, destruction environments like Battlefield Bad Company 2 does, which is so cool

tgwolf
tgwolf like.author.displayName 1 Like

If you're smart, WB and Take Two would be the only ones you'd trust...

Hurvl
Hurvl like.author.displayName 1 Like

"Koch Media's $22.3 million offer well ahead of the French publisher's $5.4 million bid." Lol, Ubisoft tried to get Volition cheap, although I don't know if the company was worth the amount that Koch Media spent. I also don't know much about them, so I can't say if Koch Media has made a good investment or not, but I don't really care about that as long as they support the devs and let them make good games. Being a private company they can do like Valve and be more free, which is something I like.

jimrhurst
jimrhurst

@Hurvl I believe THQ originally paid $30M for Volition many years ago, and that was before Saint's Row was a thing.  So I'd say Koch is getting a pretty decent deal.

DiverseGamer
DiverseGamer

What the hell is Koch Media?

HADES2001
HADES2001

@DiverseGamer whell you prolly don't play videogames a lot cause they are (co)responsible for dead island, catherine, anno 1701, earth 2160, gothic 3, metro last light, risen 1 and 2, sacred 2, spellforce 2, the guild 2, X2 X3 and X rebirth and many more games

Dashkimbrell
Dashkimbrell

@HADES2001 @DiverseGamer Catherine was made by atlus and index corporation. Koch had nothing to do with it.

Hurvl
Hurvl like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 3 Like

@HADES2001 If you look up Gothic 3 or several of the other games you mentioned, the name Koch Media doesn't show up anywhere, so you could forgive DiverseGamer for not knowing who they were, instead of sounding rude.

MidnightMeteor
MidnightMeteor

@Hurvl Wait you think he's rude when the original post was pure ignorance? Internet police beware...haha.

Nanomage
Nanomage

@Hurvl @HADES2001 

Yeah it does,Gothic 3 has both Koch and Deep Silver(the gaming arm of Koch)mentioned everywhere from the games to the wiki pages,as well as all others.

DrKill09
DrKill09 like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 3 Like

Well, despite no Red Faction, I'm glad Saints Row is secure.  Hopefully Volition get some more projects down the line.


Maybe even a spiritual successor to Red Faction. 

Simplythebest12
Simplythebest12 like.author.displayName 1 Like

Volition made Freespace 1 and 2 right ?

I want Freespace 3

DrKill09
DrKill09

@Simplythebest12  It's doubtful they acquired those rights.

ZlataBani4ka
ZlataBani4ka

@DrKill09 @Simplythebest12 Interplay holds the rights for Freespace. Too bad i would say. Those were great games.Volition, however, released the code for Freespace 2 and mods are made by fans, very good ones too.

X-RS
X-RS

@DrKill09 @Simplythebest12  

Dunno the game, but that's kinda what I wanna know, where did the rest of the properties go? Are they just sanctioned to be forgotten, or is there some other auction that will deal with smaller things?

SavageEvil
SavageEvil like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

Don't screw with the name Koch, Deep Silver Volition sounds stupid and would look even worse on a logo. Volition are pretty good developers, now lets hope thye can return SR to excellence, SR3 was weak compared to SR2. Now SR4 should return to awesomeness that SR2 was and with Volition keeping their team intact this should bode well. Give us a huge sandbox with hundreds of things to do and return the story to comical but still a bit realistic as R3's story coupled with the gimmicky nonsense was a bit overboard and not funny or entertaining.

jimrhurst
jimrhurst

@SavageEvil Not to start any kind of flame war, but I thought SR3 was fun as hell.  I see lots of people on GameSpot longing for SR2.  I played both, enjoyed both, and I don't see where it took a downturn.  Honest question, what are the key beefs with SR3?


I mean, if you look at RFG vs RF:Armageddon, whoa.  Now there's a series taking a nosedive...

bouff
bouff

@SavageEvil it be good if they redone SR3 and not let *SPOILER* (incase there are still people that havent played SR3 yet) Gat die, they could keep it in steel port but change the story and missions (as well as the side stuff).....

Spartan_418
Spartan_418 like.author.displayName 1 Like

Red Faction Guerrilla was one of the most fun open-world games I've played, really hope the series doesn't die out entirely. Another Red Faction with further improved destruction would be a great showcase for the power of next-gen consoles

DiverseGamer
DiverseGamer

@Spartan_418 

The series was doing really well, and then they fucked it all up with Armageddon.

Spartan_418
Spartan_418

@DiverseGamer I thought Armageddon was decent despite being linear and fairly short. The vehicle sequences were a ton of fun. Worth the rental. Though of course I hope the series goes back to being open-world

blackace
blackace

Wow.. Koch paid too much with that bid. they could have gotten it for like $6 or $7 million. TH-Q is making out pretty good with these sales. They should be able to clear up all their debts after this.

jimrhurst
jimrhurst

@blackace Not really true.  It wasn't truly anonymous bidding.  Once the other companies knew of Koch's bid, they went after other pieces of THQ instead.  So without Koch's $22M bid, someone else would have made a more serious offer.

MAD_AI
MAD_AI like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

@blackace 

Wouldn't matter, THQ is gone, no more. All the money is going to creditors.

cdog21
cdog21 like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 3 Like

I keep seeing it mentioned all the time, but what's with the hate for UPlay. 

I've never had a problem with it, but then again I've only played Ubisoft games on 360. I don't know if it does something different on PC.

jimrhurst
jimrhurst

@cdog21 I don't have a blind hatred for DRM per se, but I'm generally skeptical of the internet connection requirements and the fact that this game I hypothetically own can be taken away at any time.  Also, if there is going to be a platform like this I'd prefer to support a monopoly like Steam so that all my stuff is in one place.  Why do I want to give tons of personal information to 47 different companies and have digital properties spread all over 47 apps all of which have to run on my PC?

BladeStrike1234
BladeStrike1234

@cdog21 Many people have a blind hatred for DRM. Its one of those bandwagons that people love to jump on just to "stick it to the man"!

DerSchwarzMann
DerSchwarzMann like.author.displayName 1 Like

@BladeStrike1234

I hate Ubisoft because they are slowly turning into another EA, ruining some of their games such as Splinter Cell. Band wagon?

Kolo32
Kolo32 like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

@BladeStrike1234 @cdog21 I wouldn't say it's bandwagoning to hate something that only penalizes paying customers in a failed attempt to prevent piracy. If you lose internet access you lose access to all Ubisoft games unlike Steam where I can play all my games offline.

Xanthus179
Xanthus179 like.author.displayName 1 Like

This is good news.  I have loved Volition for a long while.  The Summoner games back on the PS2 were a lot of fun.  Deep story, lots of quests and exploring.  Reboot that series!

predailen
predailen like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 5 Like

Anyway That Volition/Koch Media could buy the Freespace IP from Interplay, because a new Freespace game would be awesome!

Arsyad00
Arsyad00

Sell it and get rich!!!!

snugglebear
snugglebear like.author.displayName 1 Like

I haven't played the Red Faction games, but I've heard good things and hope they manage to get picked up in not too long. 

As for Saints Row being alive still, Huzzah!

gatsbythepig
gatsbythepig

Who is this 'possibility' person and why does everyone entertain him?

demondogx
demondogx like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 6 Like

Good, rather them then ubisoft, not looking forward to yearly saint row games with that god awefull uplay on it.

Hope that deep silver will give them the time to develop and make a good game out of the next saint row, and if they dont do rediculus stuff like day 1 dlc that include cheats i might actually but the new saints row on release instead of waiting on a steam sale.

SirNormanislost
SirNormanislost

What this article doesn't mention is that aswell as violation and SR Koch media also acquired the metro IP

Dareitus
Dareitus

@SirNormanislost yeah but mentioning that they DIDNT get Red Faction along with Volition and Metro is news to me. I don't personally care none of them have really impressed me besides the original (which was amazing) but surprising non-the-less.

SirNormanislost
SirNormanislost

@Dareitus @SirNormanislost yeah red faction1 was amazing I'd be very interested to see who gets that IP

pal_080
pal_080

Come on Ubisoft, way to limp in there with that weak bid!  In other news.. I don't even know who Koch Media are... hopefully they enjoy video games!

jimrhurst
jimrhurst

@pal_080 Koch is a European publisher of movies and games.  They heretofore owned one actual studio: Deep Silver.  But they published other games local to the European market.  This is doubling their actual studio count from one to two.  They are a privately held Austrian company.

SirNormanislost
SirNormanislost

@pal_080 they've published a few games most recently dead island

Conversation powered by Livefyre

Hot Stories

Newsmakers

Featured Stories

Submit News

Got tips? Send them in!