Immortals of Aveum was the debut game of Ascendant Studios, an independent developer with triple-A ambitions. Founded by former Electronic Arts and Sledgehammer Games Creative Director Bret Robbins, the studio wanted to deliver a sci-fi single player shooter focused on magic, and it partnered with EA to publish the game.
Unfortunately, the game had a weak reception. At launch, it had massive stuttering problems on PC, and even on consoles it didn’t really make a splash. Immortals of Aveum received a 6.5 score in Wccftech’s review:
Immortals of Aveum makes a solid early impression with engaging magic-infused FPS action and eye-catching Unreal Engine 5 visuals, but a predictable plot, irritating characters, and repetitive, by-the-books level design dims the game’s razzle-dazzle. Immortals of Aveum will be worth it for some shooter and fantasy fans, particularly at a discount, but don’t expect your memories of the game to live forever.
Just three weeks after the August debut, Ascendant Studios had to lay off nearly half of the studio due to the game’s disappointing commercial performance.
Now, a former Ascendant Studios employee has shared further insight into the game’s excessive budget. Speaking to IGN, the anonymous source also said it was a ‘truly awful idea’ to make a single player AAA shooter in the current gaming market.
At a high level, Immortals was massively overscoped for a studio’s debut project. The development cost was around $85 million, and I think EA kicked in $40 million for marketing and distribution. Sure, there was some serious talent on the development team, but trying to make a AAA single-player shooter in today’s market was a truly awful idea, especially since it was a new IP that was also trying to leverage Unreal Engine 5. What ended up launching was a bloated, repetitive campaign that was far too long.
Thankfully, the studio hasn’t closed yet and may therefore have a chance at redeeming itself with a new project. It’ll have to be something entirely new, though, as Immortals of Aveum really didn’t click with gamers.
