Ascendant Studios, the developer of last year’s decent but woefully-underperforming Immortals of Aveum, has reportedly furloughed “the majority” of its staff.
At a basic level, being furloughed means staff were not completely let go from the studio but given an involuntary, and usually unpaid, leave of absence from work with the expectation that they will return at a later date. Aside from the hardship of not being paid for an indeterminate amount of time, being furloughed means the affected staff likely won’t receive any kind of severance package.
“Ascendant Studios has furloughed the majority of their staff. I can’t imagine what that would be like as that is worse than getting laid off. It would be good to get eyes on people there looking for work. Stuff like this shouldn’t fly under the radar. Amir Satvat for visibility,” Morness wrote in a post on LinkedIn.
“Not sure what the numbers are like, but I’m probably guessing around 30 folks.”
The news was later corroborated by Polygon’s Nicole Carpenter, who wrote that she had heard similar, but couldn’t confirm numbers and hadn’t been able to get in touch with Ascendant for comment.
This lines up with what I’ve heard at Immortals of Aveum developer Ascedant Studios — that a large portion of the staff was recently furloughed. Haven’t been able to confirm numbers, and Ascendant hasn’t responded to multiple requests for comment. pic.twitter.com/WNjcIJpOBH
— Nicole Carpenter (@sweetpotatoes) April 10, 2024
Ascendant had already laid off around 45% of its staff last year, and based on estimated numbers that means there’s likely very few folks actually working at the studio after these changes.
It was only recently announced that the EA Originals-published Immortals of Aveum would be getting a significant update that’s set to make it the first console game to use AMD’s FSR 3 frame generation technology, and the game was recently made available to PlayStation Plus Essential subscribers on PS5 to claim as part of their subscription, but even with a shot in the arm to its debut title, the future of the studio seems dire at this stage.
We gave Immortals of Aveum a huge 9/10 in our review, with James saying, “Immortals of Aveum is a steadfast debut that will assuredly put its creators on the map. It combines strong combat mechanics with an engaging story set in an even more engrossing world to offer up a satisfying and complete experience. While the gear system and some console resolution issues might be off-putting for some, Immortals of Aveum is one of the most pleasant surprises in an already burgeoning year and a spellbinding adventure that’s well worth your time.”
