A bunch of round 20 builders previously of Ascendant Studios, together with its former CEO, have joined Dan Houser’s Absurd Ventures to type a brand new studio in San Rafael, California: Absurd Marin.
In a press launch immediately, Absurd Ventures introduced its new studio could be led by Ascendant Studios founder and former recreation director on Immortals of Aveum Bret Robbins. The group will work on a “story-driven action-adventure” recreation that will likely be separate from Absurd Ventures’ different initiatives, which collectively happen within the A Higher Paradise universe.
Absurd’s addition of round 20 Ascendant workers comes after Ascendant was hit with dramatic layoffs final fall, following the launch of Immortals of Aveum. Almost half the studio was let go, round 40 individuals whole, on account of poor gross sales of Immortals of Aveum. On the time, the cuts have been mentioned to have been essential to preserve the studio open. Nevertheless, earlier this 12 months, studies circulated that nearly all of the remaining staff at Ascendant had been furloughed as well, simply months after Robbins told GamesIndustry.biz that the “story of Immortals is not written but.”
It’s unclear whether or not or not Ascendant Studios nonetheless exists now that its CEO and most of its workers have seemingly moved on. The studio and game’s official X/Twitter account’s last post was on August 13. IGN has reached out to Ascendant Studios for remark.
Absurd Ventures was based by Rockstar co-founder and GTA author Dan Houser after he left Rockstar again in 2020, working alongside radio host and former GTA author and producer Lazlow Jones. We spoke to Jones again in August in regards to the enterprise, together with his exit from Rockstar, his partnership with Houser, and the way A Higher Paradise will discover themes of synthetic intelligence and dependancy.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Bought a narrative tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.