Sacred Symbols+, Episode 341 | Why Immortals of Aveum Failed
Added 2023-10-21 16:00:07 +0000 UTCPlease welcome Atari's Senior Producer Jason Polansky back to Sacred Symbols+. Today, Jason returns to chat with me (Colin) about a topic near-and-dear to my heart: The magic FPS Immortals of Aveum. Just a couple of weeks ago, Jason messaged me that he too played the game, and was wondering if I wanted to chat about it. I said yes, of course, because I knew that -- with a learned and experienced industry professional like Jason -- we could skip all the nonsense and get into the nitty-gritty of what went wrong with this title. This isn't a review nor spoilercast; it's an analysis of where products like Immortals of Aveum even fit into our modern ecosystem, if they do at all. What did EA learn from its failure? How about Ascendant? And, perhaps most importantly, what can the rest of the industry glean from this commercial dud? You'd expect the first non-Epic Unreal Engine 5 game to draw some interest, but, well... 2023 is a different sort of year. And we both agree that we ain't seen nothing yet.
Comments
This was a great conversation.
Michael Mashpotato
2023-10-25 15:26:59 +0000 UTCReally enjoyed this episode. So interesting to see the former giant in the industry Atari continue to exist in an indie-like capacity.
Luke Douglas
2023-10-24 16:10:12 +0000 UTCThe reason it failed was because it was one of the most generic looking games I’ve ever seen. The writing in the trailer was so cringe and same with the name.
Kenneth Fox
2023-10-24 11:19:18 +0000 UTCGreat guest. Compelling conversation about the industry.
Noah Trujillo
2023-10-23 20:34:46 +0000 UTCGreat chat, I'd like to hear more from Jason in the future
Rayden
2023-10-23 15:26:37 +0000 UTCTo me, boomer shooter is more a design philosophy than an aesthetic. Key hunting, lots of weapons, maze-like level design, diverse enemy roster, high movement speed.
Noah Friscopp
2023-10-23 13:29:41 +0000 UTCSeriously that name is so dull!! Not at all enticing. Cover art and names of games may not seem to matter but they definitely do!
Napoleon in Rags
2023-10-23 05:43:00 +0000 UTCLoved this episode. Hope Jason gets to come back again as he’s incredibly insightful and you both had a good cadence in the conversation. Seems like any subject would be fine.
Shortsoptional
2023-10-22 23:27:02 +0000 UTCLoved this one. Just grabbed this off PSN - on sale for $40 for the next couple days if you’re reading this!
Dante B
2023-10-22 16:24:07 +0000 UTCI completely agree with Jason when he says Immortals of Aveum came out at a bad time. I actually put the game on my Steam wishlist one day when I just randomly came across it and I was surprised that I had heard literally NOTHING about it before I did so. Unfortunately, it came out too close to Starfield for me to buy it. I'm still definitely going to play it eventually, but I don't know when that will be. I'll more than likely get it on sale at some point, but I definitely would have bought it full price if it came out at a better time for me personally.
Zac Lebeau
2023-10-22 15:38:08 +0000 UTCI agree. I knew nothing about the game going into this episode and still enjoyed the conversation.
PRETENTIEUX
2023-10-22 02:35:51 +0000 UTCI really enjoyed this chat. I'd love to see more post-mortems of failures in the future with Jason. He and Colin have a really good rapport.
Adam Razak
2023-10-22 02:01:58 +0000 UTCThe fact that the game uses a generic fantasy art style along with sounding like it could be a spin off of immortals fenyx rising (an already mid game) isn't doing it ANY favors. The photorealistic visuals are probably holding it back, This game definitely could have benefited from a more abstract aesthetic. It's adhesion to realism probably hurts it almost as much as the terrible name. Not that photorealistic visuals are bad; But when you're already clearly having a lot of trouble making your game stand out visually, it's only going to make it harder. The photorealism was almost certainly a financial decision. Most consumers still want their games to look like movies, unfortunately. And you get what you pay for.
The Fred Durst Death Hoax
2023-10-22 01:57:55 +0000 UTCThat sounds like an appropriate price for it. I think one of the reasons it flopped as hard as it did was the $70 price point.
TriggerHappyTom
2023-10-21 20:48:48 +0000 UTCThat is a game I'm waiting for like Black Friday or something to pick it up when it's like $20 or less to get around to it
rubber nipples 209
2023-10-21 19:27:19 +0000 UTCouhh, gotta keep my eyes out. Love me a good cheap "bad" game. Forspoken was actually great, and this looks like it might be as well.
Stinkling
2023-10-21 19:26:15 +0000 UTCI just bought this game at target. They had it for $40
rubber nipples 209
2023-10-21 16:37:02 +0000 UTCWhere would we be without Colin spreading the Gospel for the Immortals of Aveums and Mad Max's?
Joe B
2023-10-21 16:05:58 +0000 UTC
