Just Cause developers Avalanche Studios are cutting staff and closing their Liverpool, UK-based studio following Microsoft’s cancellation of co-op smuggling game Contraband.
Avalanche announced Contraband back in June 2021 in the form of a trailer replete with lockboxes, scribbly heist maps and Steely Dan music. There followed several years of almost complete silence, broken by news that over 500 Swedish staff had formed a union in April 2024 – part of a wave of games industry labour activism in the face of widespread, “post-Covid” job-chopping.
The positivity was not to last. In June 2024, Avalanche laid off 50 people and closed their New York and Montreal studios to ensure “a stable and sustainable future for the company”. Then, in August this year, Microsoft called time on Contraband, shortly after laying off a bunch of Xbox developers and cancelling such games as Rare’s Everwild and The Initiative’s reboot of Perfect Dark.
Back then, Avalanche commented that “active development has now stopped while we evaluate the project’s future”. There’s been some disagreement between Microsoft and reporters over whether the game is fully dead, or merely “on hold”. I imagine it’ll be on hold for a while, if they aren’t any developers to work on it.
Avalanche’s statement about this week’s reductions alludes to “current challenges to our business and the industry”, but doesn’t mention Contraband. The company propose to close their Liverpool studio, with a collective consultation process as required by UK law. “The changes will also impact our other studio locations in Malmő and Stockholm,” the statement continues, “where we will reduce our workforce and restructure the teams to address our games’ needs.”
Best of luck to everybody affected.
