It is no secret that Immortals of Aveum, a first-person magic shooter developed by Ascendant Studios, turned out to be a commercial failure. But now a new report has emerged about the game’s estimated budget.
The information was shared by a former Ascendant Studios developer in a new IGN report on the recent streak of mass layoffs in the games industry.
It appears that Immortals of Aveum was “massively overscoped” for a debut project from a relatively small studio. “The development cost was around $85 million, and I think EA kicked in $40 million for marketing and distribution,” one former employee told IGN, which means the game’s total budget could have exceeded $125 million.
They added that making a AAA single-player shooter based on a new IP and built with Unreal Engine 5 was a “truly awful idea,” and the studio ended up launching a game with a “bloated, repetitive campaign that was far too long.”
Another developer, who still works at Ascended, told the publication that Immortals of Aveum was projected to sell well by multiple publishers, but actual sales were only a “tiny fraction” of those projections.
Launched in August 2023, Immortals of Aveum only peaked at 751 concurrent players on Steam, which is a disappointing result given its budget and support from a major publisher like Elecrtonic Arts. It currently has a 75% rating on the store based on just over 1,100 reviews, while its average Metascore sits at between 66 and 76 depending on the platform.
A few weeks after the game’s release, Ascended Studios announced its decision to cut 45% of its 80-100 employees. CEO Bret Robbins cited “poor sales” as the main reason behind the layoffs. At launch, Immortals of Aveum also suffered from poor optimization due and failed to gain enough interest from players — especially compared to other titles released under the EA Originals program like Wild Hearts and It Takes Two, which peaked at over 28k and 32k concurrent players respectively.