Absurd Ventures, the corporate shaped by longtime Rockstar mainstay Dan Houser just a few years in the past, has introduced that it is shaped a recent studio beneath its umbrella. The studio, known as Absurd Marin, comes with a beginning workers of a number of former builders of Ascendant Studios’ ill-fated Immortals of Aveum.
Yep, that is the Immortals of Aveum that got here out final yr amid a complete barrage of different attention-grabbing issues, and, for the million causes unlucky issues like this may occur, did not ship the gross sales the pretty lofty funds the execs had pencilled in for it led them to count on. This was adopted by some layoffs at Ascendant, which clearly nobody with sense, regardless of how they felt concerning the recreation itself, wished to see.
Now, Immortals’ director and Ascendant co-founder Bret Robbins might be main Absurd Marin (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz), which is made up of “about 20 builders from the core group behind Immortals of Aveum” as of writing, and might be engaged on a “story-driven journey recreation”.
As of proper now, the sport sounds prefer it’s within the early phases of growth, and subsequently hasn’t has its title introduced. It is separate from the sport that Absurd Ventures itself is engaged on, which relies on a universe known as A Higher Paradise, the identical title you may discover on a 12-part audio collection Absurd has been engaged on.
Again in Could, some job listings probably supplied a greater concept of what that recreation from the primary Absurd studio would possibly vaguely appear to be or contain, although the corporate’s in any other case stored it fairly beneath wraps to this point.
Even when we’ll in all probability wait some time for more information about it, it is good to see some Immortals devs being given an opportunity to have a crack at making one thing else after Ascendant laid off “about 45%” of its workforce this time final yr, following its magic shooter being described by one ex-Ascendant worker as a factor that nobody purchased.
“Not in years have I seen a recreation thrown out to die as onerous as Immortals of Aveum,” our personal Connor Makar wrote in his overview of Immortals, “Developed by Ascendant Studios, it is a recreation that hopes to mix some good ol’ customary FPS motion with some slick spell-slinging. An attention-grabbing pitch for certain, however sadly not one which manifests itself in an particularly exhilarating vogue. Immortals of Aveum is a middling journey, which simply so occurs to be releasing at a time when a number of industry-shaking video games are releasing.”