A new PS5 game, Immortals of Aveum, released only six months ago, is being sold for a pound in Asda as the supermarket makes way for new stock.
The game was previously reduced to £5 just before Christmas and is not available online , so those looking to take advantage of the deal will have to visit a shop in person.
Immortals of Aveum was released on PS5, Xbox and PC last August and received mixed reviews. The Evening Standard Tech team rated it three out of five stars, saying it had “some magic” … “but not enough for it to shine”.
The shooter was developed by Ascendant Studios and published by EA as an “EA Original”. It was billed as an AAA first person shooter (FPS) where magic took the place usually reserved for guns. Despite a rather unique premise, the game ultimately ran up against Starfield and Armored Core VI after a delayed release, which likely added to its underwhelming overall sales.
Although the game struggled to sell well, it was nominated for the award for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project at the 22nd Visual Effects Society Awards.
The review read: “The pitch for Immortals of Aveum seems simple: it’s Call of Duty with sorcerers for soldiers, magic spells for guns. You’re still a man on a mission in the middle of a worldwide conflict but instead of Tom Clancy high-tech espionage with all guns blazing, you’ve got sub-Tolkien fantasy meets Marvel movie flash and thunder. It’s an interesting twist on the FPS formula, with all the required bombast, battles, and blockbuster set pieces, so why is the result so underwhelming?
There are definite parallels with some recent Marvel efforts. There’s too much focus on lore and world-building at the expense of a storyline and characters you care about, despite some impressive motion-captured performances here and there. The realms of Aveum have descended into an endless “everwar” between kingdoms of feuding magicians, each determined to hold all the power.
“There’s an intriguing eco-fable buried in here somewhere but you’ll have to dig to find it.”
The month after the game’s release, Ascendant Studios made half its staff redundant. A developer who worked on Immortals of Aveum said anonymously it was “a truly awful idea” to release a game of its type with such a large budget. The developer said the game cost $125 million and that making a single-player game with that budget was asking for failure.
“At a high level, Immortals was massively overscoped for a studio’s debut project,” the developer claimed. “The development cost was around $85 million, and I think EA kicked in $40 million for marketing and distribution.”
But those wanting to try it for themselves can do so at a cut-price cost now if they are quick.
