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EA and Ascendant Studios’ fantasy FPS Immortals of Aveum hasn’t left a big impression since launching in August 2023. According to the studio’s founder, the game would have done better if it hadn’t been sandwiched between so many other AAA releases.
Immortals of Aveum released in an extremely crowded year, but Ascendant Studios isn’t giving up
“When we were heading to launch, we knew it was very crowded,” Ascendant’s founder, Bret Robbins, told GamesIndustry.biz. “This was a very unusual year. Zelda had come out, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was a little before us. And as we were nearing launch, Baldur’s Gate 3 suddenly blew up right in front of us. That one, more than any of the others, seemed unanticipated.”
The studio also knew that Immortals of Aveum would be competing against both Armored Core 6 and Starfield. “We were sandwiched between a lot of different big games or games from really big studios,” said Robbins. We absolutely got lost in the noise.
He also partly attributed Immortals of Aveum’s underperformance on the studio’s decision to delay the game from July 20 to August 22. This gave the developers more time for polish and optimization but meant it faced stiffer competition on release. “Although the game was better, the timing was worse,” Robbins admitted.
Then again, the argument that Immortals of Aveum would have done better in a worse year isn’t exactly a glowing recommendation. While some reviewers liked the game, its PS5 version only averaged 69 on Metacritic, with a user score of 6.0. The Xbox version did a little better with a score of 76, while the PC release only managed a 65. By comparison, the PS5 versions of Baldur’s Gate 3 and Armored Core 6 averaged 96 and 86, respectively.
Either way, Robbins hasn’t given up on Immortals of Aveum and thinks it may be a sleeper hit. “The story of Immortals isn’t written yet,” he said. “I was the creative director on Dead Space, and people were discovering that for years and years. I think Immortals will be the same.”