A group of about 20 former Ascendant Studios developers, including its former CEO, have joined Dan Houser’s Absurd Ventures to found a modern studio in San Rafael, California: Absurd Marin.
In a press release today, Absurd Ventures announced that the modern studio will be led by Ascendant Studios founder and former Immortals of Aveum game director Bret Robbins. The team will be working on a “historical action-adventure game” that will be separate from Absurd Ventures’ other projects, which collectively take place in the A Better Paradise universe.
Absurd is hiring around 20 Ascendant employees after Ascendant was hit with drastic layoffs last fall following the launch of Immortals of Aveum. Almost half of the studio was laid off, around 40 people in total, due to impoverished sales of Immortals of Aveum. At the time, it was said that the cuts were necessary to keep the studio open. However, earlier this year, there were reports that almost the entire remaining crew of the Ascendant was also put on forced leavejust a few months after Robbins GamesIndustry.biz said that “the history of the Immortals has not yet been written.”
It is unclear whether Ascendant Studios still exists, as its CEO and most of its employees have apparently left. The studio and sports competitions official X/Twitter accounts last post took place on August 13. IGN has reached out to Ascendant Studios for comment.
Absurd Ventures was founded by Rockstar co-founder and GTA writer Dan Houser after he left Rockstar in 2020, working alongside radio host and former GTA writer/producer Lazlow Jones. We spoke with Jones in August about the venture, including his departure from Rockstar, his partnership with Houser, and how A Better Paradise will explore themes of AI and addiction.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Have a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
