Staff at Ascendant Studios have been given a new lease on life after being furloughed earlier this year as today Absurd Ventures announced a new studio, Absurd Marin, made up of developers from the Immortals Of Aveum makers.

The new studio will be based in California and involves 20 staff members from Ascendant Studios including CEO Bret Robbins. It is not entirely clear if Ascendant still exists in any capacity or not, but for now the team is working to transition over to Absurd Marin.

While many details about the game the studio is working on is scarce, Absurd has said it will be a story-driven adventure title based on an unannounced new IP. Absurd Ventures is also working on a project in the A Better Paradise universe but it is said the Marin team will not be involved.

For those unfamiliar Immortals Of Aveum was the debut game from Ascendant Studios published through EA Originals. It was a single player first person shooter where you shot magic instead of guns. The game received mixed reviews and didn't sell overly well. Speaking from my own personal experience I thought it was quite well done and was hoping to see a sequel one day.

While technically an indie game Immortals reportedly had a budget well over 100 million dollars. It definitely had the look and feel of a AAA title with some higher profile actors featured.

I will be curious to see what comes of the new studio now as they have some pedigree in my eyes and I'm glad to see the team at Ascendant get a second chance.