About 20 core members from Immortals of Aveum developer Ascendant Studios have formed a new studio called Absurd Marin, a new team under Absurd Ventures which was formed by former Rockstar Games co-founder, Dan Houser. The new studio is working on an unannounced “story-driven adventure title” that’s completely new and not one of the projects already underway at Absurd Ventures.
As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, 20 core members from Ascendant Studios, the developer behind last year’s action game Immortals of Aveum, have united to form a studio under Absurd Ventures called Absurd Marin. The studio’s first title will be “a brand new project” (a new IP) and not a sequel to Immortals of Aveum or any of the projects already in development at Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser’s company.
Development on the project will be led by Immortals of Aveum director Brett Robbins. Beyond that, little else is known about this new game as it seems to be in the early stages of development.
Houser left Rockstar Games back in 2022 to establish Absurd Ventures. That wasn’t the only recent high-profile departure from the GTA developer as Mike Unsworth, who wrote both Red Dead Redemption games as well as GTA IV and GTA V, left the company.
Immortals of Aveum had a rocky launch as it failed to really live up to Ascendant Studios’ expectations, inevitably leading to layoffs and the staff being considerably downsized to just 20 staff members. Putting the pieces together, it seems like the remaining team has moved onto Absurd Marin. This begs the question of whether Ascendant Studios will continue to operate without its workforce or be shut down. We’re willing to bet that a studio closure might be coming.
If you’d like to play Immortals of Aveum, it’s currently available on Xbox Series X/S via Game Pass as well as PS5 and PC.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
