Support NeoGAF

[DragoonKain]

Immortals of Aveum studio lays off nearly half of staff weeks after release

The major layoff comes after poor sales for the EA Original

www.polygon.com

This is sad to see I think the game is actually pretty solid.

 

[fart town usa]

That's a shame! Game looks awesome but just too many titles to play. I definitely plan on getting it at some point.

 

[StueyDuck]

Geez that sucks.

It was pretty obvious that game wasn't going to do well though. It somehow was unique but entirely soulless and uninteresting at the same time.

Same as forspoken

 

[OverHeat]

Sucks for them but the game is not good I’m forcing myself to finish it.

 

[Punished Miku]

1. I think launching a new IP without a demo is almost always tough. People are more and more conservative with their taste these days and more accustomed to sticking with what they already know than decades past when I feel it was easier to launch new IP. You game still has to be great and have a good impression in the demo too, or you end up like Forspoken.
2. Launching a new IP at $70 is also tough. People still haven't normalized $70 no matter what anyone tells you. They expect only the top of the heap for that price, and any new IP is going to have a tough time convincing people they're worth that when people know they can wait for a likely price cut.

Demo, and don't launch at 70. Even then, you may still fail due to how conservative gamers taste is these days.

 

[DragonNCM]

Actually......game is B tear trash. With some right direction it could be better but it is beyond repair...just like Redfall.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Demo, and don't launch at 70. Even then, you may still fail due to how conservative gamers taste is these days.

You launch at 70 because you don’t want to give the impression your game is “lesser” than others at 70. Same reason all the crap Android flagships with OEM parts have the same price as an iPhone only to get slashed by half 6 months after launch.

 

[Punished Miku]

You launch at 70 because you don’t want to give the impression your game is “lesser” than others at 70. Same reason all the crap Android flagships with OEM parts have the same price as an iPhone only to get slashed by half 6 months after launch.

Maybe, but Callisto Protocol, Forspoken, and Immortals all killed their studios. New IP is a death sentence, and my gut tells me $70 is still a monumental hill to clear because that's how I still feel about it.

Gotta say, subs seem more crucial to the health of the industry every day when you see all these new IP bomb in the AAA space.

No one bought Exoprimal either, and Gamepass is all it had.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

Everything in that game looked like it was designed by an AI. No soul at all.

 

[GHG]

2023 first person godfall.

Maybe, but Callisto Protocol, Forspoken, and Immortals all killed their studios. New IP is a death sentence, and my gut tells me $70 is still a monumental hill to clear because that's how I still feel about it.

Gotta say, subs seem more crucial to the health of the industry every day when you see all these new IP bomb in the AAA space.

No one bought Exoprimal either, and Gamepass is all it had.

The survival of mediocre games and studios is not critical to the overall health of the industry. Devs should be competing against each other and propelling one another forward (innovating and striving for excellence), not basking in mediocrity and coasting thanks to subscription service payouts.

 

[Fbh]

A shame for those who were let go.

Can't say I feel too bad for the game itself though. Performance issue and 720p on consoles for the sake of graphics, and terrible Marvel style writing (at least in the trailer) would have made this a tough sale even during a less busy season.

 

[Interfectum]

Maybe, but Callisto Protocol, Forspoken, and Immortals all killed their studios. New IP is a death sentence, and my gut tells me $70 is still a monumental hill to clear because that's how I still feel about it.

Gotta say, subs seem more crucial to the health of the industry every day when you see all these new IP bomb in the AAA space.

No one bought Exoprimal either, and Gamepass is all it had.

The problem with new IP is there is nothing for the game to fall back on if it's mediocre. There's no built in audience that will buy it just because... so if you are going to make a new IP it better fucking hit. None of these did.

 

[Kurotri]

The game looked bad, 0 appeal. Even the name is dumb, it doesn't roll off the tongue. I hate it.

 

[GHG]

The problem with new IP is there is nothing for the game to fall back on if it's mediocre. There's no built in audience that will buy it just because... so if you are going to make a new IP it better fucking hit. None of these did.

Being a new IP is not the problem, it's the combination of being derivative and mechanically poor which creates a death sentence.

 

[Gaiff]

Mediocre game gets mediocre sales. It was clear as day this would happen. Nobody ever wanted to play a first-person magic shooter.

 

[bender]

Gotta say, subs seem more crucial to the health of the industry every day when you see all these new IP bomb in the AAA space.

Chicken or egg situation. Subscription services have made me way more conservative when purchasing indies and to a lesser extent, new IP. For the past few years, 90% of indie titles I'm interested in have ended up on Game Pass or PS+++++.

 

[Punished Miku]

Chicken or egg situation. Subscription services have made me way more conservative when purchasing indies and to a lesser extent, new IP.

Maybe so. I'm sure there's pros and cons to everything. I just haven't heard about anyone taking a sub deal and closing their studio yet, but you hear that in retail all the time lately.

Don't forget Saint's Row also, which admittedly was pretty bad and has had a ton of chances. I think that's a genuine case of the audience knowing the product and just rejecting it.

 

[Dthomp]

Maybe, but Callisto Protocol, Forspoken, and Immortals all killed their studios. New IP is a death sentence, and my gut tells me $70 is still a monumental hill to clear because that's how I still feel about it.

Gotta say, subs seem more crucial to the health of the industry every day when you see all these new IP bomb in the AAA space.

No one bought Exoprimal either, and Gamepass is all it had.

I think all of these titles show why we need a lesser price point that isn't just laughed at by the industry. Do those titles all get laughed out of the gates if they launch at $50 or $40 dollars? Gamers as a whole fully accept unfinished early access games on Steam for $30 bucks that can be pure dogshit. You are right about new IPs and the $70 dollar tag, while it's not a crazy jump inflation wise, it's still a jump during a time in life where EVERY single other item we need to purchase has also raised in price, something has to give and that is usually hobby items. I know for sure I have cut back on the amount of Day 1 games I have bought because of the price hike, and mainly just cause I don't support it versus can't afford it. I think another thing to look at with new IPs is none of these titles listed should have had the hype of a monster AAA game, Hogwarts is still possibly my game of the year and was worth every penny to me, the difference is the team behind it put in the work and you could feel the love they put into the game where at least with Forspoken and CP it felt like the devs were actively hostile with their potential playerbases even before launch.

TLDR: Games have always been $$$, but we really need a standard lesser price point for games $39.99/49.99 instead of $69.99 or bust

 

[Tsaki]

Maybe, but Callisto Protocol, Forspoken, and Immortals all killed their studios. New IP is a death sentence, and my gut tells me $70 is still a monumental hill to clear because that's how I still feel about it.

Gotta say, subs seem more crucial to the health of the industry every day when you see all these new IP bomb in the AAA space.

No one bought Exoprimal either, and Gamepass is all it had.

All 3 of those games failed because they were mediocre in the best of light, not because they were new IP. Why should anyone spend money and time on mediocrity when there are always critically acclaimed games to play.

 

[winjer]

This is really bad news for the people working there.

 

[Interfectum]

Being a new IP is not the problem, it's the combination of being derivative and mechanically poor which creates a death sentence.

Take Forspoken, keep the same gameplay, keep the same character, have her transported to the Final Fantasy 7 universe instead of wherever the fuck they did and it would have been a completely different story in terms of success. That one change would have netted a million sales alone.

Releasing a new IP is risky as shit unless it's at least a 9/10.

 

[Kenneth Haight]

This is sad. Game wasn’t for me but never nice to see people lose their jobs.

 

[Punished Miku]

All 3 of those games failed because they were mediocre in the best of light, not because they were new IP. Why should anyone spend money and time on mediocrity when there are always critically acclaimed games to play.

Medicore didn't used to mean zero people buy it and you close the studio after 1 game. You graduate from mediocre to great through experience.

 

[Kenneth Haight]

first person godfall

This is a very good comparison

 

[bender]

Maybe so. I'm sure there's pros and cons to everything. I just haven't heard about anyone taking a sub deal and closing their studio yet, but you hear that in retail all the time lately.

Don't forget Saint's Row also, which admittedly was pretty bad and has had a ton of chances. I think that's a genuine case of the audience knowing the product and just rejecting it.

If I were an indie studio, I'd take the safe bet of a subscription service without hesitation. There will be long term ramifications to this though as you are retraining consumer's spending habits. I also think we are starting to get past the honeymoon period of Microsoft licensing as much content as possible for Game Pass and as their internal pipelines improve, I think they'll invest less in 3rd party offerings.

 

[adamsapple]

Man, that sucks. The game looks very interesting.

Hopefully the effected able to land on their feet quick.

 

[justiceiro]

Not surprised. Somehow they managed to make a unreal 5 fantasy game look as generic as a dude bro shooter. EA is really talented at making their games look lifeless.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Very sad news to hear; hopefully everyone affected lands on their feet shortly.

 

[SmokedMeat]

$70 mediocrity.

This model isn’t sustainable for no name developers trying to play the AAA game. Only the big fish can afford that.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Marketing had to be part of it. I keep up with most games due to GAF news. I wont play 99% of them but at least I hear about it and see threads. I dont even remember hearing about this game on GAF or games sites until it came to launch.

Immortals of Aveum peaked at just under 800 Steam players shortly after launch, according to SteamDB. Just under one month since its launch, the game has peaked at 74 players over the past 24 hours, per the database’s numbers. This could be, in part, due to Immortals of Aveum’s intense technical requirements — according to The Verge, less than 9% of PCs may have qualified to run the game.

I downloaded this board game from Steam for like $5 a few years ago. Even it has similar kinds of Steam stats.

 

[Interfectum]

Medicore didn't used to mean zero people buy it and you close the studio after 1 game. You graduate from mediocre to great through experience.

Imagine if Naughty Dog was forced to close after the first Uncharted instead of giving them a second chance to absolutely nail it.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I guess the single player market...

...is saturated.

 

[Sleepwalker]

Obligatory
.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

$70 mediocrity.

This model isn’t sustainable for no name developers trying to play the AAA game. Only the big fish can afford that.

Pretty much this.

Let the big publishers with well known IPs and marketing be that tier.

Studios with less dollars to make games and marekted them should stick to more modest games. Nothing wrong with that. You can be a super successful game maker developing cheap indie games. Its just that the games wont be giant splashy games. But at least they are more budget friendly for gamers and developers.

You can tell EA didn't even care about it. Hardly heard or saw anything about it.

 

[Punished Miku]

And I get mentioning subs at all instantly triggers people, but I was trying to be serious. High on Life scored very badly but the studio is somehow still around and it found an audience. Atomic Heart also seems to have made some impact. Both new IP, both studios still around.

Then you have Shadow Gambit. It actually launched at $40 new which is a fantastic price and it reviewed extremely well (I got the game for both reasons). But that studio just went out of business too this year.

Wanted: Dead bombed, but it's a low budget, short AA game and the studio accepts multiple projects. They're still around.

 

[El Muerto]

Nobody wants to pay full price for a game with EAs logo on it.

 

[BennyBlanco]

game looked bad and dropped during a time that was stacked with good games. Who could’ve possibly seen this coming.

 

[Mister Wolf]

The game looked like a bad idea from the beginning. Would have probably went over better with a third person view featuring melee and magic combat.

 

[Black_Mamba]

Doesn't matter if people who played the game liked it or not. It's not an indie game like Volcano High that could find a niche, but an AAA that also looks cringe af for most people. The outcome couldn't be more predictable.

 

[Heisenberg007]

That's sad.

New single-player AAA studios are rare anyways. They could have been better in a few years.

 

[Honey Bunny]

I mean it looked shit from the start

 

[MiguelItUp]

I heard and read the game was actually pretty decent, but it just had one of those lifeless/passionless vibes about it. The look, the art, etc. A lot of the characters almost look like they could be on the box art of old GPU boxes. Regardless, it's still so sad people were cut, and SO fast.

 

[SJRB]

The writing was on the wall, honestly.

 

[iorek21]

Being a new IP isn’t the problem, being a mediocre/shitty game is.

You just can’t invest an AAA budget in a game that has no appeal in any front. I get the “Sony games look the same” meme, but there’s a reason they’re like that: people love it.

A magic shooter called “Immortals of bla bla bla” was never going to be a hit without being a high quality game.

 

[rofif]

That's terrible.
The game is fantastic.

NEW IP
SINGLE PLAYER no mtx
DECENTLY LONG 15-20 hours
Doom 2016 + metroidvania.
Unreal Engine 5.2 Lumen + nanite.

This is exactly the type of game we all wanted.

This is why this industry is in a bad shape. Unique, new, single player games like this or Forspoken absolutely loose to sequels and gaas. And it's tragic because these are good games.
These are AAA games that should at the very least get AA reception. But they might as well not exist

 

[Sleepwalker]

Nobody wants to pay full price for a game with EAs logo on it.

Funnily enough yeah, they are available for $15 for a month of ea play pro at launch, and they join gamepass/regular ea play a year later. Most people are still waiting to play Dead Space R, Jedi Survivor and Immortals.

 

[Tsaki]

Medicore didn't used to mean zero people buy it and you close the studio after 1 game. You graduate from mediocre to great through experience.

The game sold something but not enough to cover their past, present and future costs and the whole studio is not shut down. They are also independent so higher risk is inherent. And like I said earlier, nowadays there are many more games available to the customer, cheaper than ever before so people don't have to settle for mediocre. You can get The Witcher 3 with BOTH its massive expansions for $20 or less, digitally right now. Why should anyone care for these games when they can experience one of the best games ever made, giving them content to play for months and months. It's the studio's responsibility to make a great game, with as little bugs as possible, without ballooning their costs by hiring 100 people in California. In addition, FromSoftware makes new IP constantly and they thrived because of it, making them one of the most successful studios worldwide.

 

[rofif]

Being a new IP isn’t the problem, being a mediocre/shitty game is.

You just can’t invest an AAA budget in a game that has no appeal in any front. I get the “Sony games look the same” meme, but there’s a reason they’re like that: people love it.

A magic shooter called “Immortals of bla bla bla” was never going to be a hit without being a high quality game.

But it's neither mediocre or shitty. These are good games. Usually solid 8 games.
This just shows that there is no room for games like doom2016 or xbox 360/ps3 gen games.
People just want sequels and gaas.

This would sell AA+ numbers in 360 gen and we would be screaming for sequels.

Edit: At least I put my money where my foot is. in my mouth(or something like that). I've bought Forspoken and This on ps5 full price on release. I support these type of games and devs

 

[El Muerto]

Funnily enough yeah, they are available for $15 for a month of ea play pro at launch, and they join gamepass/regular ea play a year later. Most people are still waiting to play Dead Space R, Jedi Survivor and Immortals.

Exactly why i'm waiting to play them, no point in buying if you have either service. I have zero desire to play EA games at launch anyway because i know they're going to be 12hours of mediocrity.

 

[rofif]

Actually......game is B tear trash. With some right direction it could be better but it is beyond repair...just like Redfall.

I don't think it's B tier. For sure not trash. It's everything that people should love. New ip, Doom+metroidvania+hexen(magic).... and UE5 first full use in a big game. This should be a HIT.
It would be a hit on 360/ps3 gen. Gamers nowadays are slowly forgetting what gaming is all about. Games need to live forever as gaas. This is what people play because we've been served this crap long enough that kids grew on gaas. Of course they will not buy this.
Game that advertises 20 hours of gameplay is nothing nowadays to modern gamers. Gamers are stupid and value bloated hours with fake gamepaly. They also don't want anything new and risky.
And god forbid it's something like Forspoken that is not dead serious. People are stiff and boring nowadays.

Medicore didn't used to mean zero people buy it and you close the studio after 1 game. You graduate from mediocre to great through experience.

Exactly. Perfctly said.
Nowadays, if something doesn't catch on, it dies. no matter the cost and size.