Immortals of Aveum cost more than a hundred million dollars to make, says a former dev from Ascendant Studios. Read on to learn about Immortals of Aveum’s production cost and how it led to massive layoffs for its developer.
Immortals of Aveum Cost $125 Million to Make
The Game’s Concept and Budget Were Both Mistakes
Immortals of Aveum (IoA) is one of 2023’s most iconic video game flops, costing its developer Ascendant Studios an arm and a leg to release, only to be met with lukewarm reception at best. Ascendant Studios CEO Bret Robbins blamed the game’s commercial failure on that year’s busy release schedule, though new information regarding what may be the true cause for the game’s failure has come to light.
An anonymous former Ascendant employee told IGN that the concept of the game itself and its massive budget were both mistakes and ultimately doomed the project. “At a high level, Immortals was massively overscoped for a studio's debut project,” they said.
“The development cost was around $85 million, and I think EA kicked in $40 million for marketing and distribution. Sure, there was some serious talent on the development team, but trying to make a AAA single-player shooter in today's market was a truly awful idea, especially since it was a new IP that was also trying to leverage Unreal Engine 5. What ended up launching was a bloated, repetitive campaign that was far too long."
Immortals of Aveum Just Didn’t Have an Audience
Another anonymous employee from Ascendant told IGN that there was promise for the game’s approach, but admitted that it failed to find a sizable audience regardless. "It's not a sequel or a remake, it doesn't take 400 hours to beat, has zero microtransactions, no pointless open-world grinding,” the employee said. “Although not everyone loved it, it reviewed pretty well, currently sitting at a 74 on OpenCritic and a Mostly Positive on Steam. No one bought it."
This new information is a far cry from the supposed cause of IoA’s poor market performance, which included the game’s high system requirements and 2023’s heavy-hitting roster of new games.
Whatever the reason, it’s likely that Immortals of Aveum’s commercial failure and the subsequent fallout that befell its developers — more on that later — would discourage other AAA names from making yet another high-budget single-player shooter in the industry’s current market, lest they follow the footsteps of Ascendant Studios.
