In the wake of the gaming industry shift, Ascendant Studios, the California-based developer responsible for last year’s Immortals of Aveum, faces the ever more difficult waters. In a fresh leak of information, the movie studio was found to have resorted to layoffs of nearly half its workforce which brings the studio more trouble.
Unveiling the unsettling news
Long before the world knew this unnerving reality, Kris Morness, ex-ASCENT principal engineer, posted it on his LinkedIn page without any compassion. Last but not least, Nicole Carpenter from Polygon endorsed the information as well, reportedly stating that “most of the company’s employees” have been laid off.
The high level of uncertainty prevails as Ascendent Studios has not issued an official statement on what caused the crash after numerous inquiries were put forward. Hence, Morness, who was there for the era when the company enjoyed the fullest employment, just came up with an estimate that up to 30 workers had been sent on a forced leave off a team that was 40-45 people strong at that time.
A saga of struggles: A trip to Furloughs
The Ascent Studios’ saga unfolds in the background amid Immortals of Aveum’s launch on the 9th of August, 2023. The game, with its ambitious concept and originality, however, found that the storm of mixed reviews and mediocre sales made it into part of the maelstrom. But then, very few customers turned up to buy the game, leading the management of Ascendent to execute layoffs, pushing out more than half of its employees just about one month after the launch of the game.
The layoffs following that had a gloomy effect on the studio operations, prompting the game community and industry analysts to look inside themselves and think about what could have gone wrong. Despite the CEO of Ascendent, Bret Robbins, pinpointing frenzied release schedule as the main problem of the game’s poor commercial performance, there is inside information from the development studio that points to more complex issues. A previous developer, hiding her identity, frankly acknowledged that the decision to start the development of an FPS with a single player with an inadequate budget of $125,000,000 and without doing a market survey was, in retrospect, a bad idea since the start.
With the latest upheaval mixing things up at Ascendent Studios, the wondering what the next chapter of the company would be like doubts would inundate the audience. The road seems to only go downhill from here, strewn with missed opportunities and obstacles before you, offering less than hopeful prospects.
Although the gaming community is not immune from hardships, a crisis has a way of showing that there is always a beam of hope in a disaster. Movies like New Frontier may have failed in bringing success to Aveum studios yet Ascendent studios’ creativity and innovation are as vibrant as ever. Each stumble has allowed me to realize what it needed to become the pillars on which my new journey is based.
One decade after the last Ascendent Studios saga has ended, the gaming century looks with tension on what will be the next chapter, defined by the tenacity, commitment and outstanding desire to be the ultimate.
