Immortals of Aveum developer Ascendant Studios has laid off 45% of its staff – WGB, Home of AWESOME Reviews
Ascendent Studios has laid off 45% of its staff following the release of its debut game, Immortals of Aveum. CEO Bret Robbins made the horrible announcement on Twitter, revealing that a substantial amount of his 80-100 staff members are now out of a job.
“Today, we are heartbroken as we part ways with friends and colleagues at Ascendant Studios – about 45% of our team,” Robbins’ said.
“This was a painfully difficult, but necessary decision that was not made lightly – nevertheless, we have to make this adjustment now that Immortals of Aveum has shipped.
“We are supporting those affected in every way we can, including comprehensive severance packages and job placement assistance, as well as support services for those who remain.
“If your studio is looking for proven UE5 artists and engineers, please reach out and let us know so we can introduce you to some incredibly talented game devs.”
— Bret Robbins (@BretRobbins) September 14, 2023
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I am so proud of what our independent development team has accomplished with Immortals of Aveum. Together we’ve created a new AAA studio, a new IP, on new technology, during an era of our industry when that is exceedingly rare.
“We’ve poured our passion into Immortals, while wearing our hearts on our sleeves. The studio will continue to work that way as we support the development of this game and our Immortals IP moving forward with future updates and offers.
“To my team reading this message, especially those leaving us, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your invaluable contributions to Ascendant’s culture and your tremendous impact on bringing Immortals of Aveum to life.”
Immortals of Aveum is a first-person-shooter that uses magic instead of guns and actually had quite a bit of hype behind it before it launched in August. While the reviews weren’t glowing they were certainly solid and respectable for a brand new IP. On Opencritic it holds a Fair rating of 72 across 104 reviews, including an 8 from IGN and an 8 from Game Informer.
Despite this decent reception, though, Immortals seems to have struggled to find an audience, likely not helped by the numerous big releases we’ve had this year. Neither EA, who helped fund the game under their EA Originals label, nor the developer have shared any sales data so I can’t say with absolute certainty that it didn’t sell well, but SteamDB data shows the game’s peak concurrent players was just 751.
It’s always a sad day when people lose their jobs, and I wish all the luck in the world to those effected by the layoffs. I also hope that Immortals of Aveum does get another chance, perhaps when the gaming landscape is a little quieter.
Originally posted by wolfsgamingblog.com
