Highlights
- Ascendant Studios, the team behind Immortals of Aveum, has experienced significant layoffs, potentially due to lackluster sales of the game.
- Despite some success around its release, the Immortals of Aveum community quickly dwindled, impacting the developer.
- The laid-off developers have proven their skills with Unreal Engine 5, and the future projects of Ascendant Studios remain unclear at this time.
Ascendant Studios, the team behind Immortals of Aveum, has been hit by some big layoffs. Immortals of Aveum was 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 Aveum also had some success around its release. Despite the criticism that it received, Immortals of Aveum became one of the top 100 Steam games of 2023. However, the Immortals of Aveum community quickly dwindled after release, with 751 peak concurrent players turning into an average of less than 100 players. While a portion of this is from Immortals 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.
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 that Immortals of Aveum will continue to receive support, and the IP may see some attention in the future. These layoffs are happening less than a month after the launch of Immortals 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-off Immortals of Aveum developers have proved their skills with Unreal Engine 5. Robbins intends to introduce game developers to studios that reach out and the Immortals of Aveum Game Director left contact information alongside his post. Another employee has stated separately that Immortals of Aveum is 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 around the Immortals of Aveum IP, it's currently unclear what the studio will work on next.
Immortals of Aveum is available now for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
