The “core team” of Ascendant Studios has formed a new studio under the leadership of Dan Houser and his company…

Ascendant Studios’ Immortals of Aveum, which used Unreal Engine 5 to create what could be described as a magical FPS, failed, and now the developers have essentially moved on, as the main people at the company have formed a new team called Absurd Marin. The name is no coincidence, as Dan Houser, former co-founder of Rockstar, founded his own studio in 2021 under the name Absurd Ventures.

Absurd Marin will be led by Bret Robbins, founder and director of Ascendant Studios, and a spokesperson for Absurd Ventures says the new team will consist of about 20 members who previously worked on Immortals of Aveum, and will expand as development of the next game progresses. Houser said Robbins has assembled a talented, passionate team and they are excited to join Absurd Ventures as they begin working together on one of their new original games.

It’s worth remembering what Absurd Ventures announced last November: we heard that they were working on two universes. One is a sound fiction series called A Better Paradise, and the other is American Caper, the first story of which will be released sometime this year. Absurd Marin is working on another story-driven action-adventure game that will be set in a third, yet-to-be-announced Absurd universe. So it’s fair to ask, is Ascendant Studios on the ropes now?

If we had to guess, the answer would be yes. A month after the release of Immortals of Aveum, half of the crew was laid off, and this year the rest went on hiatus, although a week earlier it was rumored that they were hard at work on their next project. They haven’t posted anything on Twitter since August 13th, and probably won’t after that!

Source: PCGamer