'Immortals Of Aveum' Studio Announces Layoffs For 45% Of Staff

"This was a painfully difficult, but necessary decision"

by Fraser Gilbert Thu 14th Sep 2023

'Immortals Of Aveum' Studio Announces Layoffs For 45% Of Staff

We've got some sad news to share today, as the CEO of Ascendant Studios (which recently released Immortals of Aveum in partnership with EA) has announced that around 45% of the team has been laid off.

Taking to Twitter, CEO Bret Robbins described the move as a "painfully difficult, but necessary decision":

Robbins didn't give a reason behind the layoffs in his message on social media, although one former employee told Polygon that poor sales were cited. It seems around 40 people in total have left the company.

Admittedly we haven't heard much buzz about Immortals of Aveum since it launched back in August, and that's a shame because we liked it here at Pure Xbox, giving it a "Good" 7/10 score in our review.

Let's hope everyone affected by today's news is able to land on their feet and find work in the near future.

Have you played Immortals of Aveum yet? What do you think of it? Tell us in the comments.

Fraser is the News Editor at Pure Xbox, where he spends his time reporting on the biggest stories in the world of Xbox and beyond.

1
UndyingInsurgent95
Thu 14th Sep 2023

Definitely poor sales. If my memory serves, the game peaked around 480 players on PC which is absolutely abysmal considering the Twitch streamer push. Hope the laid off devs land on their feet soon!

2
Tonmoy
Thu 14th Sep 2023

@UndyingInsurgent95 I didn't know it was that bad but I hoped as a new ip it'd do well. It was a unique take on the stale fps genre. And we wonder why AAA studios don't take risk anymore.

3
UndyingInsurgent95
Thu 14th Sep 2023

@Tonmoy I think it released in a very busy window, not to mention the 70 USD price didn't help much. Don't me wrong, it's a great game but the FPS genre is probably the riskiest segment for studios.

4
InheritNegative
Thu 14th Sep 2023

Yeah new IP, at that price point, in a year stacked as this... Not a good combination. I hate seeing new things fail though.

5
InterceptorAlpha
Thu 14th Sep 2023

@Tonmoy Definitely some issues with release window. Being way overpriced. As all $70+ games are. But at the end of the day, most people prefer what they know.

Sadly you're not breaking into that unless you've got a very compelling argument as to why people should buy your product. And as mentioned above, they had the opposite

6
BrilliantBill
Fri 15th Sep 2023

Hmm... it was painfully obvious from the very first trailer that the game has issues in art design, gameplay, player feel and performance. There was lot of valuable and well-articulated feedback on the internet about it. They should have taken the feedback, improved and released it a year from now. Instead they just rocket-ed their way into launching it as is. Didn't help that it was sandwiched between games superior in every way.

@Tonmoy New IP or not, risky or not, you have to produce a truly great game to have a chance in the AAA market where games cost 80 Euros. The suits cannot expect players to part with their hard-earned money on launch day "for the sake of encouraging investors to take risks, even though the game is mid at best". I think this game would have had a chance if it was on GamePass day one? Perhaps dropping it on GP and PS Plus etc could help but apparently studio has already taken the big hit anyway.

7
SuntannedDuck2
Fri 15th Sep 2023

Who to blame here? EA expectations? The marketing? The stacked year won't deny. Art, performance and more. Journos. The Digital Foundry details making people go nope I'm out.

It may be layoffs but still sucks. In a world where Battle Royale matters. When it's just what elimination modes were/hunger games but with a different term/words use and a few tweaks over time with licensed characters and this and that music/other whatever. I'm like sure. I mean crossovers for sure it's cool but also whatever.

There is a reason I haven't played a modern shooter since Titanfall 2. Maybe I have a game newer than 2017 I can't remember (very likely) but the impact of level design and gameplay getting me as excited no. I've gone retro for older modern shooters to see what ideas I missed, how they executed it well or badly and well to play some diverse games. I don't play multiplayer so I've basically skipped a bunch of shooter for 8th gen. I got sick of COD and others not being that exciting to play. That and got other genres to experience games in. Old or past 5 years.

2017 is when I started branching out more than just simcade, shooters and action adventure/platformers so it's been an interesting 2017+ period for me seeing what cool ideas/old and new games I can experience. It's when many games went certain directions I wasn't interested in. I bought up consoles I didn't own.

But otherwise I guess it's not multiplayer and well it's not this and that so Twitch/Youtube numbers are what they are then sigh. Which sure but it's why I wanted it to succeed. Judas have any luck I do question it if it will. AAA Indies or whatever the case of veterans making what they want it's harsh of a market now.

It's why with AAA licensed games I'm like they are safe but execution still counts. Big IPs with ideas I can't stand no thanks. I don't play big IPs if their ideas don't interest me so when they keep making them I go well I've got more and more to ignore with AA or small Indies to experience instead not the bigger titles. If the core doesn't appeal why would the new content/locales right? Regardless of budget it's the ideas they present.

How newcomer friendly and if I have to relearn the games. Why are they restrictive then an old/new fans control scheme/scale of content. I'm all for that but when some games go newcomer only I get bored or frustrated. So a sequel number means nothing.

I do think some doing cool stuff like Nightingale is great. Bioware vets making a survival game is cool, the ideas they presented are cool and many things Minecraft mods did that for a full game is awesome. RPG elements and regions to change by what pages like MystCraft (not the same as the Myst games I think) yes please I'm in.

But the smaller scale nostalgia ones like Yooka Laylee was a miss for people I liked both while most people liked the 2.5D one because of course they did you DK Country Returns onwards playerbase grrr this is why we can't have nice things, oh it's like Banjo waaaa well they don't have the license and they expanded the game in fair ways. Not perfect but still.

Bloodstained, Azure Gunvolt and other more retro focused Castlevania/Mega Man and more (oh the nostalgia) I don't care about nostalgia I care about good game design. So seeing 3D platformers return with interesting ideas/themes has been cool, hack n slashes having a good amount of ideas too. But game design means nothing to most people only the graphics/themes/artstyle and more.

While racing games have sucked all 8th gen then what 1 or 2. Realism and weak ideas. Going retro and having more fun on their creative ideas I don't care what cars people have nostalgia for or tracks or whatever if the structure to play them sucks and is restrictive or boring and dumbed down for people. Or less flexible (give me Forza Motorsport 3 & 4 calendar/world tour and an event list, for both audiences not 1 audience and make the rest of us hate playing it game developers I want flexibility or more depth not oversimplification that 'everyone' has to experience or suffer with).

Which while fair I can't get on the same with other people other than artstyle if it's distracting awkward to visually play through that's about it. Whether level design or HUD that's it. If it doesn't appeal to me in style I don't hate it though most times I prefer readability then what the art looks like of good or unappealing to respond with. Seeing different art is better than being picky about the art to me at least.

Aveum as a game, that while nothing new was a creative return to shooters that 'aren't military or sci-fi'. I mean people got sick of it with COD being sci-fi so WW2 and modern eras again back and forth (sci-fi ones were hit and miss yes and competing with Titanfall was odd but cool to see besides the other stuff with BO doing the weapon loadouts for the campaign and other details people overlook going oh COD is the same every year well sure, but they put little details in areas, I notice) but when it comes to others it's like nope.

I wanted Aveum to succeed. Otherwise I'd blame journos and players for why we get trending trash and wonder why we see what we see. I know it had issues for sure. It's a crowded year, yes the resolution/performance I totally get it.

Yet I am for games not pushing the consoles enough either (or exciting game design elements on PS5/Xbox Series which is why I won't upgrade, I may if the consoles lifecycle ends and go well what is there but I'm not excited for formulaic games that are 4K whatever FPS they end up I just don't care we have the power use it in interesting ways).

Ratchet Rift Apart (Crack in Time did it and Rift Apart played it safe, thanks nostalgia and safe core then pushing the past ideas forward grr) or Starfield but their goals were different then mine so I have to accept that.

We can complain and when we get something different enough people go 'I don't want that' and 'but I hate the trends/formulas we have' well make up your minds whoever says 1 and is happy, or complains but still lets the trends live on? Like WTF.

The art/performance sure I get it but still. I'm past that if the gameplay is good I'm in. I've been not playing modern shooters since Titanfall 2 (Bright Memory Infinite as the one I cared about and skipped Halo, COD, Battlefield, I have not played BMI but I was more excited for it then the big IPs).

I've been playing retro modern shooters the 2000s era 6th/7th gen ones for something to fill in my gap of not having played them, to research and get ideas and direction on what I want in a shooter. What's been tried before.

So when I see something like Aveum I go oh cool.

Oh it didn't succeed, due to issues sure, due to not being a formula of theming well thanks modern player audience this is why I go retro is because we literally can't get anything new if I wanted to.

Even though Aveum is 'the same but with a skin/themes different/few tweaks here and there' and it still fails, then well something too dramatic that will obviously fail. It's why I have only keen eyes on certain games.

Hack n slashes have been doing great. I don't care for God of War I do others with other ideas/themes/gameplay.

Baby steps for some games to branch out, yet nope. XD

It being a 7th gen mix of Borderlands variety of tiers (I know many games do this but still), Bioshock rails and maybe some story or other elements maybe (I have the trilogy I am going to play them but the Infinite rails stood out to me), I guess a bit of Ratchet in there. Some others.

Gamepass would have helped but I doubt it in some cases.

You could say it's 7th gen shooters core, with some 8th gen flare of missions, maps, tiers of weapons and other details to make it modern.

Will people care about Judes? Bioshock 4? I do wonder for sure.

The Digital Foundry graphics details and people going 'nope'.

It's a new IP.

A number of factors.

Was it a crowded period for releases I guess so but at the same time I can take this as 'well this is why we don't get nice things and I go retro' or 'well the other factors of EA/graphics and other factors people focus on so much killed it's chances'.

8
MinervaX
Fri 15th Sep 2023

Sad but… 45% means 40 employees? That means 48 or 49 employees left? Sounds like it was a rather small studio.

9
Dydreamr
Fri 15th Sep 2023

This is really sad. I had been looking forward to this game , and it was originally scheduled to launch in July with nothing around it. They bumped it to August 21, which coincided with Baldurs gate 3, armored core 6 releasing within days, sea of stars, and starfield.

I still got the game and enjoyed it very much, but it bugged out and I couldn’t progress the game after 33% in. I am still waiting on a patch so I can finish the game. I liked this game, and this is sad news.