Summary
Ascendant Studios, the team behindImmortals of Aveum, has been hit by some big layoffs.Immortals of Aveumwas released as an EA Original in August and potentially due to lackluster sales, the Ascendant Studios team has been shrunken down significantly.
Although it saw a mixed reception,Immortals of Aveumalso had some success around its release. Despite the criticism that it received,Immortals of Aveumbecame one of the top 100 Steam games of 2023. However, theImmortals of Aveumcommunity quickly dwindled after release, with 751 peak concurrent players turning into an average of less than 100 players. While a portion of this is fromImmortals of Aveum’s high system requirements, some players haven’t returned since its launch week. These low numbers may have impacted the developer as the studio has had to lay off a significant portion of the team.
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Ascendant Studios CEO and Founder Bret Robbins recently shared an update about the development team. According to Robbins, 45% of the Ascendant Studios team has been laid off including artists and engineers. As part of the layoffs, affected Ascendant Studios employees will be given severance packages and job placement assistance. The post confirmed thatImmortals of Aveumwill continue to receive support, and the IP may see some attention in the future. These layoffs are happening less than a month afterthe launch ofImmortals of Aveum, with some issues in the game still requiring attention.
Beyond expressing appreciation for the team members who are leaving Ascendant Studios, Bret Robbins touted their abilities in his post. Robbins stated that the laid-offImmortals of Aveumdevelopers have proved their skills with Unreal Engine 5. Robbins intends to introduce game developers to studios that reach out andtheImmortals of AveumGame Directorleft contact information alongside his post. Another employee has stated separately thatImmortals of Aveumis EA’s worst-selling EA Original which caused layoffs prior to this major studio change. EA itself has also been hit by layoffs in the last year, which suggests that a lot of corporate shuffling is happening.
Although it’s not abnormal for development teams to shrink after the launch of a game, the number of laid-off staff in a short amount of time may slow progress on future content. While Bret Robbins alluded to future work revolving aroundtheImmortals of AveumIP, it’s currently unclear what the studio will work on next.
Immortals of Aveumis available now for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
