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Volition founder and president resigns
Mike Kulas, the founder and president of Red Faction developer Volition, is leaving the company. His last day will be next Monday, reports The News-Gazette. Kulas, 49, said his departure, which he had been considering since last year, wasn't triggered by any particular event. With Red Faction: Armageddon apparently complete (and all set for June 7), and Saints Row: The Third in "the home stretch," now is just a good time to make his move. Kulas will be succeeded by Volition's long-time vice president of product development, Dan Cermak. Kulas founded Volition in 1996, when he and then partner Matt Toschlog split their Parallax Software outfit in two. The pair had formed Parallax several years earlier, producing the successful Descent series. Volition was acquired by THQ in 2000 and has grown from some 30 employees in the late 90s to over 200 today, while continuing to maintain operations in Champaign, Ill. Kulas said he plans to remain in Champaign and will take some time to relax this summer before deciding on his next professional endeavor. [Image credit: Volition, Inc.]
inSane planned as trilogy, but 'if the first game doesn't work, there won't be a trilogy,' Bilson says
Guillermo del Toro's forthcoming franchise for THQ -- the awkwardly innercapped inSane -- may be planned as a trilogy, but that doesn't mean it'll necessarily play out that way. Though THQ is confident in del Toro and the franchise, Core Games veep Danny Bilson has a realistic outlook on the franchise's ability to expand to a trilogy. "We have aspirations to make a trilogy," Bilson told a gathering of press at GDC this week, including Joystiq. "If the first game doesn't work, there won't be a trilogy. It's not complicated." Bilson cited Hollywood's ability to make trilogies as an example of how not complicated this concept is. "If Avatar had been a flop then there wouldn't be two more sequels. And if the first Matrix wasn't a success there wouldn't be two more sequels." For Bilson and THQ, it means delivering quality products first. "We have to succeed on the first one. And then we have to succeed on the second one! And then you can make the third one. It's not really that arrogant, if you will, to plan a trilogy because we're very realistic." And unlike Hollywood, "we can't make two at once," Bilson jokes. "It doesn't cost that much to plan, right?" Volition president Mike Kulas said. "We're not building a bunch of assets for the future games." Instead, Kulas estimates that "a couple percent of the total budget of the second game will be spent before we have a better idea of how the first one's shaping up." As the studio responsible for collaborating with Del Toro on inSane, Volition has to succeed where many others have failed: working with Hollywood to create a successful video game franchise.
