The UK branch of Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios is to close just a few weeks after the news that Contraband, a game they were creating as an Xbox exclusive for Microsoft, is no longer in active development.
“In light of current challenges to our business and the industry, we have thoroughly reviewed how to best ensure Avalanche Studios Group’s long-term success,” reads a statement posted on the Avalanche Studios website.
“This review has led us to the difficult conclusion that we must make changes to our staffing and locations. As a result, we are proposing to close our Liverpool studio, and to initiate a collective consultation process, as required by UK law. This will impact all Avalanchers in Liverpool. The changes will also impact our other studio locations in Malmö and Stockholm, where we will reduce our workforce and restructure the teams to address our games’ needs.”
“Our immediate focus is to offer full support to all Avalanchers during this challenging time. Despite these changes, we remain deeply committed to providing amazing games to our passionate player communities.”
Avalanche Liverpool was set up in 2020 and had around 50 staff. Liverpool is the latest Avalanche studio to close, their New York and Montreal studios were shut down in June 2024 with the loss of another fifty staff.
Avalanche has not had much luck with Microsoft, having previously worked on dinosaur shooter Second Extinction. That was revealed in 2020 and did make it into early access on both PC and Xbox, but was eventually cancelled in 2023. Avalanche’s website lists Contraband as the sole upcoming title, it’s not been officially cancelled but the listing does still link back to a Microsoft page that no longer exists.
Hopefully, Avalanche have another unannounced big project waiting in the wings. It had six projects in development in 2018 but those have either been released, such as Just Cause 4, or cancelled.
Source: AvalancheÂ
