Studio Behind EA's Magical FPS Game Lays Off Half Its Staff After Low Sales
On August 22, Immortals of Aveum was released on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. Three and a half weeks later, around half of the staff who worked on the game have reportedly been laid off after it failed to sell enough copies to satisfy its publisher. It’s yet another round of layoffs to hit the game industry this year.
Developed by Ascendant Studios and published by EA as an “EA Original,” Immortals of Aveum was billed as an AAA FPS that ditched guns for wild-looking magic attacks. Originally scheduled to launch in July, the game was delayed until late August, putting its release date near the launches of Starfield and Armored Core VI. Some worried that this might lead to Immortals of Aveum getting overlooked as players flocked to the bigger, more hyped releases from Bethesda and FromSoftware. It didn’t help that when Immortals did launch on August 22, the game suffered from performance woes on PC as players with even powerful rigs struggled to play it.
Read more
Lauren Boebert Called Pregnant Woman Who Asked Her to Stop Vaping a ‘Sad and Miserable Person’
Warner Bros. CFO Thinks You Deadbeats Have Been on a Free Ride for Way Too Long
LeBron James, wife and 2 associates named in federal PED investigation
MGM Grand Cyberattack Allegedly Caused by 10-Minute Phone Call
Russell T. Davies Responds to Concerns Doctor Who Is 'Erasing' Jodie Whittaker
— Bret Robbins (@BretRobbins) September 14, 2023
“We are supporting those affected in every way we can,” wrote Robbins in his statement, “including comprehensive severance packages and job placement assistance, as well as support services for those who remain.”
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 when 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.
According to the report from Polygon, a former employee of the studio explained that Immortals of Aveum is probably one of Electronic Arts’ worst-selling Originals and it was claimed that, before this larger round of departures, several other people were laid off shortly after the game’s launch.
This latest round of layoffs is sadly not the first of 2023. Since the beginning of this year, Firaxis, CD Projekt Red, Unity, Kabam Games, Ubisoft, Take-Two, Riot Games, Meta, and other companies have announced rounds of layoffs. Back in March, EA itself announced that 800 people had lost their jobs. We also saw the recent closure of Volition, the studio behind Saints Row, after 30 years of developing games. It’s a tough time to be a game developer, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any easier.
Correction 09/14/2023 16:35 p.m. ET: This story’s original headline suggested that EA made the layoff decision. It’s been reworded to make clear that Ascendant studio management made that choice.
More from Kotaku
Police Shooting Of Sovereign Citizen Pulled Over For Fake License Plate Ruled Justified
What We Know About the 'Alien' Corpses Shown to Mexico's Congress
Jonathan Majors filmed breaking up definitely real high school fight
Moderate Republicans Killed Budget Bill Targeting Abortion for Fear of Losing Their Seats
Sign up for Kotaku's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
