Ascendant Studios has announced a new single-player, first-person shooter called Immortals of Aveum, which will release on next-gen consoles and PC sometime in 2023. The indie studio is focused on creating AAA titles and was founded in 2018 by Bret Robbins, who served as creative director of 2008’s Dead Space.
The company is the new home of a number of industry veterans who have worked on other highly successful and award-winning titles like BioShock, Call of Duty, and Halo. So far, Ascendant Studios has been busy assembling a team to work on its debut title, which was announced with an official teaser trailer at The Game Awards 2022 on December 8.
According to Ascendant, Immortals of Aveum will “deliver a visceral, cinematic campaign experience.” More precisely, the single-player, first-person shooter will take place in a fantasy universe “rife with conflict and on the verge of oblivion.” From the brief trailer shown at The Game Awards, not much can be discerned about the story, other than that there is some sort of war going on and the combatants use powerful magic in addition to more standard weaponry like war hammers.
The game is being developed with the support of EA Originals, an initiative created by industry giant Electronic Arts to help smaller studios bring their games to the public. The company provides marketing, publishing, and the security of funding so that indie developers can focus on making games. Some of the titles that have come out of the collaboration are the two Unravel games, It Takes Two, Fe, and Lost in Random.
So Immortals of Aveum will be joining a solid lineup of award-winning indie titles by teaming up with EA Originals. The game is slated for a 2023 launch, though a precise release date has not yet been announced, and will be available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series consoles. Robbins has expressed his enthusiasm about the partnership, stating that EA's "expertise and resources" will allow the team at Ascendant to make a AAA-caliber game.
A number of other exciting titles were announced at this year’s Game Awards. Fans got a first look at gameplay for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Hideo Kojima finally announced Death Stranding 2 with a four-minute trailer. But there were also some indie games at the awards show, including the reveals of Hades 2 by Supergiant Games and Judas by BioShock creator Ken Levine’s Ghost Story Games. Fans of the spooky and creepy also got another brief glimpse of Post Trauma, which will be published by Raw Fury.
Immortals of Aveum is currently in development for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.