Deep Silver Volition

Background

Deep Silver Volition Inc. (originally established as Volition Inc.) is an American video game developer founded in November 1996 after the splitting of Parallax Software (the creators of the Descent series), with their Champaign, Illinois office becoming Volition and their Ann Arbor, Michigan office becoming Outrage Games; both companies shared assets including technology and the PXO online matchmaking service. In its early years, the studio was best known for the FreeSpace series. Volition and PXO were acquired by THQ in 2000, and later German congolomerate Koch Media in 2013 following THQ's bankruptcy and the cancellation of InSane, a joint project between Volition and director Guillermo Del Toro. Currrently, Volition is best known for the Saints Row and Red Faction series.

(March 19, 1998-)

Nicknames: "Moving Head", "Ahhhhhhh", "Medusa", "Volition Head"

Logo: On a black background, the image of the Volition face shows up from the bottom right corner, before centering itself, followed by a flash before the V appears behind it, then the "Volition" and "Inc", left and right respectively.

Variants:

Descent: FreeSpace - The Great War (1998): The logo is superimposed over the opening movie, slowly zooming back. The V is over a black box outline, with a thick header on top reading ''volition, inc.''.
FreeSpace 2 (1999): Same as the previous variant, except only the V appears at first, with the box appearing behind it after, this time simply reading ''volition''
Red Faction (2001): the face disappears after it is fully shown, then is replaced by a similar face with a hard hat, and finally all of the logo turns dark red.
Summoner II (2002): the head turns into Medusa from a spell.
Red Faction II (2002): the face zooms out until it reaches the "V" upon which it explodes, a face of (supposedly) a dictator showing up in the center afterwards.
The Punisher (2004): the Punisher's skull emblem flashes before the face appears and is immediately shot to the forehead, followed by more gunshots until it falls off from the "V".
Saints Row (2006): an outline of the face shines before the logo appears, plated in metal. "Volition Inc" is written with the same lush font as that of the Saints Row logo and sparkles at the end.
Saints Row II (2008): the logo appears in various graffiti styles until it is finally shown in negative and turns into normal colors. The name "Volition Inc" is by the sides of the head. Then it disappears in a static flash.
Red Faction: Guerrilla (2009): the scanner searches over the surface of Mars, then showing the rock face of Mars (an allusion to the real object), which turns into the logo. The logo is on the white background, and the name is above and in the box.
Red Faction: Armageddon (2011): the logo emerges from the right only to be blasted to bits by a laser beam; its debris subsequently reforms into the game's logo.
Saints Row: The Third (2011): the logo is on a car bumper in black and chrome.
Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell (2015): the logo is covered in red matter with sparks flying.

FX/SFX: The CGI used to light the face as it centers screen, as well as the near-sudden flash.

Music/Sounds: An ominous choir, followed by a sudden bang as soon as it flashed.

Music/Sounds Variants:

Red Faction II: An explosion is heard after the formation
Summoner II had a mystic sound as if someone was "leveling up."
The Punisher: sounds corresponding to the gunfire.
Saints Row has a high-pitched noise for the formation and sparkling sounds for the sparkles on "Volition Inc".
Saints Row II has a district music (some kind of), which flickers, but then becomes stable.

Availability: Common. Seen on games by the studio.

Editor's Note: None.