Ascendant Studios made their gaming debut with a magical first-person shooter called Immortals of Aveum published by EA. With this, the ex-Call of Duty and original Dead Space Creative Director Bret Robbins and the team thought of making a big mark in the gaming industry. But things don’t always go as planned.

As of now, this newly formed studio has also participated in the huge layoffs the gaming industry is facing. The company boasts a team consisting of veteran personnel from big gaming houses like Halo, BioShock, etc. But even this star-studded team couldn’t save the company from the grasp of layoffs.

Ascendant Studios lays off 45% of its employees following a huge loss in their debut title with EA

In a turn of events, Ascendant Studio has parted ways with almost half of their staff after the highly anticipated game failed to deliver according to expectations, three and a half weeks after the release of their first title. The sales stooped so low that they were unable to quench the thirst of the publishing company, EA.

Robbins himself has explained the whole scenario in a Twitter post. He stated that this was a “painfully difficult but necessary decision” that they had to make to compensate for the huge loss they had faced.

Regarding this huge round of layoffs, this is what Robbins has to say: “We are supporting those affected in every way we can, including comprehensive severance packages and job placement assistance, as well as support services for those who remain.” Although Robbins also acknowledged the hard work and dedication of the team, He stated: “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.”

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However, this was not the first round of layoffs the company engaged in. According to a report from Polygon, an ex-employee of Ascendant Studios has confirmed that several people were already laid off immediately after the game’s release.

This game was released on August 22 by Electronic Arts as an EA Original. Initially, Immortals of Avem was scheduled to be released in July, but it was delayed until late August. This put the release date closer to those of blockbuster titles this year like Starfield and Armored Core VI. Many considered this to be the wrong decision to release the game in this flock, as this magical FPS might be overlooked by those two titles.

And that’s exactly what happened. Along with this, another significant reason for this is its unoptimized performance on PC. Even with high-spec rigs, players faced a very bad gameplay experience.

Ascendant Studios wanted to begin their journey with a bang, but after the release of Immortals of Aveum, their journey has slowed down from the very beginning. With this round of layoffs, it will be tough for the studios to stand strong again. Let’s hope they do very soon.

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