Immortals of Aveum will grow for “years and years” like Dead Space, director says

Immortals of Aveum is a game which will continue to be discovered by players for “years and years” like Dead Space, according to its director.

Ascendant Studios founder Bret Robbins, who also served as creative director on the first Dead Space game, made the comment in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz reflecting on the launch and future of the developer's debut game.

Despite initial poor sales and lackluster reviews for Immortals of Aveum when it released in August 2023, Robbins said he believes the game's future will be successful like Dead Space. “People were discovering [Dead Space] for years and years,” Robbins stated, “I think Immortals will be the same.”

Although sales figures for Immortals of Aveum have never been released, Robbins said the game had “five times the sales” after it went on discount at half price between November and January. This period is also when “the huge breakout games started to quiet down,” Robbins added, referring to the busy launch calendar he has previously said were to blame for poor sales.

The disappointing sales of Immortals of Aveum prompted Ascendant to lay off 45 percent of its staff, which was estimated to be about 40 people. At the time, Robbins said the layoffs were “a painfully difficult, but necessary decision.” Later, he called the layoffs unavoidable and said he was “forced” to make the decision as “we didn't sell enough games.”

Yesterday, Robbins commented on the recently announced layoffs at EA which will affect about 670 employees, including the entirety of Battlefield developer Ridgeline Games. “Very sorry to hear about the layoffs at EA today,” I posted on X.

The layoffs at EA bring the estimated total of affected people to over 7,500 in the space of two months. This figure is nearly reaching the number of layoffs in 2023, which is estimated to be 10,500.