Maybe it’s the publisher’s fault this time, too, because we suddenly don’t have much pre-release marketing to think of for the magic FPS…!

Think about it: during the summer, before the August release (originally July, but Ascendant Studios needed an extra month to polish the game), how much of the game did Electronic Arts show us? Almost nothing. Immortals of Aveum (which we reviewed here) fell into the same stupid, stupid mistake that Battlefield 1 did seven years ago. Wouldn’t it have been better to release the game in November, maybe December? By then, the October deluge (which we’re going to be crippled by and probably go bankrupt…) would have been over, so the game would have been released with fewer bugs and possibly more content and wouldn’t have been lost in the shuffle to Baldur’s Gate III and Starfield, for example. So, the developers are not so much to blame in this case.

Bret Robbins, CEO of Ascendant Studios, tweeted about the cuts: “Today, we are heartbroken as we part ways with friends and colleagues at Ascendant Studios—about 45% of our team. This was a painfully difficult but necessary decision that was not made lightly; nevertheless, we must make this adjustment now that Immortals of Aveum has shipped. I am so proud of what our independent development team has accomplished with Immortals of Aveum. Together, we’ve created a new AAA studio, a new IP, on new technology during an era of our industry that is exceedingly rare. We’ve poured our passion into Immortals while wearing our hearts on our sleeves. The studio will continue to work that way as we support the development of this game and our Immortals IP moving forward with future updates and offers.”

The studio was founded in 2018, and we heard in April that they had over 100 employees. According to Polygon, about 40 people have been let go. The reasoning? Immortals of Aveum was selling poorly. Gee, we wonder why, don’t we, dear Electronic Arts…?!

Source: PCGamer