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Immortals of Aveum director says magical FPS flop could find cult success like Dead Space in the futurePeople will discover the “100% AAA” shooter for “years and years”, Ascendant head suggests
People will discover the “100% AAA” shooter for “years and years”, Ascendant head suggests
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/EA
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/EA
Immortals of Aveumsaw a very rough debut last summer, with the first-person magic-shooter from new studio Ascendant and EA reportedly suffering poor sales and mixed reviews - resulting in almost half of its developersbeing laid off mere weeks after its launch. Despite beinga reported $125 million flop that “no-one bought”, its director believes that it could still go on to find an audience yet.
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Ascendant studio head Bret Robbins toldGamesIndustry.bizthat part of Immortals of Aveum’s struggle was due to its arrival in the midst of a packed summer, launching shortly afterBaldur’s Gate 3(the result of that game’s sudden move up the calendar), the same week asArmored Core 6: Fires Of Rubiconand less than two weeks beforeStarfield. That was despite the game being delayed from its original release date to add some final development polish.
“We absolutely got lost in the noise,” Robbins said. “Although the game was better, the timing was worse.”
Robbins didn’t ascribe all of Immortals’ difficulties to its release window, however, stating that putting out a brand new IP that people were unfamiliar with - even with a reported $40m of marketing help from EA - contributed to its mixed critical reception.
“I’ve never worked on a game that got both 4s and 10s,” he said, comparing it to his past work on theCall of Duty serieswhere “people knew what Call of Duty was”. “I think that can be attributed, to some degree, to it being a new IP.
Image credit:Ascendant Studios / EA
“The story of Immortals isn’t written yet,” he said. “I was the creative director onDead Space, and people were discovering that for years and years. I think Immortals will be the same."
That may well be true, as Alice found things to like about Immortalsin our review- but with 2023 offering such a plentiful bounty of acclaimed and ambitious games (many of which demanded dozens of hours of playtime), it’s perhaps no surprise a slightly more standard shooter struggled to find attention at the time.
Robbins still feels that the team succeeded in creating a “100% AAA” experience on a “pretty modest” budget, and remains steadfast in his belief that Immortals has potential despite its troubled debut, having previously committed to continue supporting the game and the wider Immortals IP in the future.
“We are still here, we are still supporting it, the sales are picking up and I hope more and more people play and enjoy it,” he said.
“If people want new IP, if they want innovation, they have to vote with their wallet. If you say it and don’t buy it, maybe you don’t believe it that much.”
