Magic FPS『Knights of AveumOn November 19th, Bret Robbins, CEO of Ascendant Studios, the developer of the game, gave an interview with the overseas media Windows Central, where he talked about the reasons behind the game’s poor sales. For him, this year has been unprecedented, he said.
In this work, the protagonist is a member of an elite force of battle mages who fight to save the world from the crisis of the abyss. It features high-speed battles from a first-person perspective, making full use of a wide variety of spells and magical equipment.
“Knights of Aveum” will be released for PC/PS5/Xbox Series X|S on August 22nd of this year, distributed by EA’s EA Originals label. It attracted a certain amount of attention because it was created by the studio of Bret Robbins, who has worked at Crystal Dynamics, EA, and Sledgehammer Games, and has worked on numerous AAA titles. On the other hand, after its release, user and media reviews were sluggish, and sales were reported to be sluggish. And in September, developer Ascendant Studios laid off 45% of its staff (see related article).
Of this timeinterviewRobbins was asked if the release of this work amidst the crowd of blockbusters had an impact on sales, and he answered, “100%.” He said in his experience he has never seen a year like this. In August, when “Knights of Aveum” was released, “Baldur’s Gate 3” and “ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON” were released. Also released in July were “Pikmin 4” and “Remnant II,” followed by “Starfield,” “Mortal Kombat 1,” “Payday 3,” and “EA SPORTS FC 24” in September. While it is often debated that 2023 will be a bumper year than usual, a number of noteworthy titles were released during this period as well.
Robbins says this release schedule was 10 times more demanding than usual, given that it’s difficult for a new IP like Knights of the Aveum to garner attention. Even so, the developer did not have the authority to move the release date, so they had no choice but to proceed with development, knowing that it would be a difficult launch. He also stated that the relationship with the distributor, EA, was good.
In the interview, we were also asked, “Would it have helped this game if it had been offered for subscription services like Xbox Game Pass or PlayStation Plus?” In response, Robbins said that it would be good to have more people playing the game, but said, “Honestly, I don’t know.” Meanwhile, he revealed that he is currently negotiating with Microsoft and SIE to offer both services. Details have not yet been decided, but it is certain that it will be provided at some point.
The latest update for this work will be distributed on November 17th. A New Game+ mode, a more difficult Grand Magnus mode, and new endgame elements have been added. We also made balance adjustments and bug fixes. In addition, a free trial version is also available on each platform. This is probably a way to provide an opportunity for people to experience this work.
“Knights of Aveum” is a PC (Steam/Epic Games Store/EA App）/PS5/Xbox Series X|SIt is on sale for.
