In a recent interview, a former employee of Ascendant Studios expressed strong criticism towards the debut game, Immortals of Aveum. The employee, who chose to remain anonymous, revealed that the development cost for the project was approximately $85 million, with an additional $40 million allocated for marketing and distribution by EA.
According to the IGN interview, some employees knew Immortals of Aveum wouldn’t do well. Despite the presence of considerable talent within the development team, the employee deemed the decision to create a AAA single-player shooter in today’s market as “a truly awful idea.” This is especially because it was a new intellectual property endeavoring to leverage Unreal Engine 5.
“At a high level, Immortals was massively overscoped for a studio’s debut project. 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.”
Former employee
While indications within the company made it seem like the studio had done everything right, it didn’t sell. When I looked at the game before release, I didn’t care for it either. It didn’t look like anything new; it looked like a recycled corporate game to appeal to gamers. During the marketing, I couldn’t see anything innovative about it. It looked bland and unoriginal.
You can’t base people buying a game on how good it is to play. Guardians of the Galaxy was an amazing game, but it didn’t get the sales it needed, thanks to the reputation it got before release (thanks to Marvel’s Avengers). When you market something that looks basic, people won’t value it. That’s what happened.
While acknowledging the game’s mixed reception, including a 74 rating on Open Critic and good reviews on Steam, the employee lamented the lackluster sales, which fell significantly short of initial projections. The person being interviewed said that the poor performance of the Immortals of Aveum game caused around 50 employees to get laid off from the studio.
Former employees pointed out that when layoffs happen, people on social media often suggest that the CEOs should take pay cuts or that the employees should form a union. But those things wouldn’t have saved the jobs in this case. The source stressed that the gaming industry is unpredictable, and running a professional studio takes a lot of money. Ultimately, it’s about cutting what isn’t making the business money right then, which can be staff.
The ex-employee ended by acknowledging studios’ difficulties in a tough market, where making less-than-great games can lead to job losses. Even though they appreciated some good things about Ascendant Studios, like fair pay, working from home, minimal overtime, and support for junior staff, the failure of Immortals of Aveum had bad results.
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