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Volition alumni on building Shapeshifter Games in an era of layoffs and closures
29.02.2024 - 14:21 / gamesindustry.biz
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Saints Row developer Volition was the first major studio to shut down in the current wave of layoffs and closures. Yet, as often happens, when a large studio closes its doors, this is not the end for some of the talent that it housed with a new studio rising from the ashes.
That studio is Shapeshifter Games, a new co-development house founded by Volition alumni, including studio head Matthew Madigan, creative director Brian Traficante, and studio director Rob Loftus. The developer is currently assisting InXile Entertainment with its upcoming Xbox exclusive Clockwork Revolution, operating as a fully remote studio with plans to go hybrid in the long term.
When we catch up with the aforementioned trio to find out more about the new studio, Madigan clarifies that he wasn't at Volition when it shut down. He left the Saints Row dev back in 2017, after 15 years at the company, for opportunities outside of games before returning with a stint at Lost Boys Interactive in 2021. In recent years, he had been considering whether there was room for another games studio in Champaign, Illinois, where Volition was based.
Upon hearing the news that Volition had closed, and a lot of talent was now out of work, he was determined to make this hypothetical new studio a reality.
"[This is] a small town in Illinois, and keeping that talent and that workforce and those devs in town is kind of a – I grew up here, and so it's important to keep that vibrant community here," he tells GamesIndustry.biz. "So, we wanted to see if we could maintain that core."
Madigan estimated the closure happened at 11am. By 4pm, he had called Traficante – who had been creative director at Volition – and the conversation that would lead to Shapeshifter Games began. The trio became complete when Rob Loftus, formerly executive producer at Volition, joined the team in January after helping to tidy up the studio's final affairs.
Shapeshifter has hired more than ten employees so far, all of which are former Volition (although some had left the studio prior to its closure). The team is still aiming for AAA development, envisaging that the studio could grow to 200 to 300 people, but Madigan emphasises that is a long-term goal.
The decision to go into co-development is telling; while other AAA alumni have gone straight into developing a new IP, the Shapeshifter trio is conscious of how difficult it can be to break into the market – even with veteran talent – and the tens of thousands of people laid off in the past year is a stark reminder that a business needs to be able to sustain the team it has. While the studio may create its own games further down the line, co-dev was deemed as far
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