When I first saw the news that Volition is gone, I felt bad for them... But at the same time, since the initial Gang Tag Wall Art teaser, fans were excited, it looked like Saints Row was back to it's SR1/2 days. But then that CGI trailer left all the fans in confusion. They started giving us more and more (but bit by bit) and we kept directly commenting that this was a bad move. We voiced our opinions and said that this is NOT Saints Row.
I will give them respect that they didn't give in to peer pressure and stuck to their guns, because this was the game they wanted to make... But the fan base they built up with SR1 & 2 almost completely dissolved, and the fan base for 3 and 4 were even a little hesitant. This game could have been perfect... For the right audience.
The problem was, this was their fist attempt at something completely new (yet still using the Saints Row IP for some reason), so they didn't have a fan base ready to accept this game, like the initial SR1 release, they basically went for a less serious, fun based version of GTA, so fans of GTA would see the game and give it a try.
The only fan base that might have seen the new Saints Row and thought "this is the game for me" would be Fortnite fans, simply because of how cartoonish the game is. But they should have known from the amount of backlash they were receiving that this was not a game their current fan base was going to accept as a Saints Row game.
They were lucky that so many of us did stick around to actually give the game a try and hope it wasn't as bad as they were advertising it. But, while some of the gameplay was enjoyable, the game was riddled with game breaking bugs, online co-op was a nightmare (at least for me and my friends), and the story was just so far from any previous Saints Row game that it felt like a poorly written parody by someone who's never played a Saints Row game in their life.
And the one thing that will always stick with me is how they handled the "It's our time now" cutscene in this game... It was so bad (but under the context of the story, it did fit well), it felt like they were mocking the very roots of how serious that cutscene was in previous games. SR1 - End the conflict between the gangs of Stilwater and make the streets safe for the citizens, SR2 - Reclaim the empire we worked so hard for and get revenge on the gangs that killed the original Saints, SRTT - Avenge Johnny Gat and show the Syndicate that they can't just move in on our territory, SRIV - Literally to avenge Earth... SRR - We can't pay our rent or student loans, and the other gangs don't take us seriously... I wonder why they don't take you seriously.
I'm neutral on the whole LARP stuff, but it did feel like they put most of their effort into that part of the game. Giving it a full lore, providing weapons that make it seem like the whole city is involved in the Dustmoot, and giving them a reason to bring Gwen back now that the Boss is no longer in Marshall. But because the LARP stuff seemed the most polished, I found myself enjoying that part of the game more, because there was an actual story to follow.
So am I disappointed that Volition is gone? Yes... Especially since one of my goals in life was to work for them. But at the end of the day, this is the hill they chose to die on... Quite literally. It doesn't make it right or fair that they're gone, and I was hoping to at least get one more SR game from them (but with fan feedback taken into consideration this time), and it sucks to see them gone after all the great games they have released over the years.
But... Actions have consequences, and in the business industry, numbers speak louder than words.
Edit:
Just for context I do believe they did say numerous times that this WAS the direction they wanted to take the series in... So to anyone who was thinking I should have been talking about Deep Silver for this, I'm just saying that Volition themselves said that this was the direction they wanted to go for Saints Row. So I know all the marketing side was handled by Deep Silver, but that doesn't change the fact that Saints Row is what it is.