In August 2023, The Embracer Group unceremoniously closed the Volition development studio as part of its long restructuring efforts. The studio had been operating in some form for over 30 years and released games like the first two Descent titles, along with the Freespace, Red Faction, and the Saints Row series.
This week, it was revealed that a number of former Volition members have formed an all-new game developer studio, Shapeshifter Games (via TechRaptor). The studio is also based in Volition's former hometown of Champaign, Illinois:
The studio's official site states:
Shapeshifter draws upon deep experience in open-world and character action games earned while working on some of the industry’s most beloved franchises. Before Shapeshifter's formation, our team were members of the Core Technology Group and Creative Leadership at Volition.
One of the team members of the newly announced Shapeshifter Games, Lighting Artist AJ Nelson, revealed on his LinkedIn page that the team is already working on its first project. Shapeshifter Games is co-developing an unnamed title with Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios.
Shapeshifter's own Linkedin page says that it is collaborating with "a top publisher on their next great IP", which likely means it's one of Microsoft's all-new upcoming titles, rather than a new game in an existing franchise.
Microsoft has made relationships with many other third-party developers to assist in making games for its Xbox consoles and the PC. Developer Certain Affinity has helped with developing games in Microsoft's Halo franchise with Bungie, and later for 343 Industries, for a long time. More recently, Blackbird Interactive was the co-developer of Minecraft Legends with Mojang.
Hopefully, we will learn more about Shapeshifter Games' work with Xbox Game Studios in the near future. In any case, it's always good when developers can get back together after a studio closure to work on a new project at a startup studio.
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