Avalanche Studios has halted development on Contraband

Contraband, the open-world smuggler action game in development at Avalanche Studios (the team behind the Just Cause games) has ceased development. First announced back in 2021, the game was pitched as a “co-op smuggler’s paradise set in the fictional world of 1970s Bayan, brought to you by Avalanche Studios and Xbox Game Studios“. Since that reveal, not much has been heard of it until this announcement.

News of the apparent cancellation was confirmed on Avalanche Studios’ website. “Over the past several years, Avalanche Studios Group and Xbox Game Studios Publishing have collaborated on Contraband,” the studio advises in a statement. “Active development has now stopped while we evaluate the project’s future. We’re thankful for the excitement we’ve seen from the community since we announced and will give an update on what’s next as soon as we can.”

Following Contraband’s announcement four years ago, Avalanche Studios and Microsoft have been tight-lipped about the game and not revealed any new game footage or gameplay details. It’s not unlikely that the game’s development has been impacted by the waves of layoffs, impacting nearly 9000 employees, which Microsoft has been making over the past several months. Recently, Perfect Dark and Everwild were cancelled at Microsoft mid-development, along with the Forza Motorsport franchise having been axed.

The statement emphasises that Contraband’s future is merely being evaluated rather than the project being cancelled altogether. That said, with all the other games Microsoft has publicly cancelled mid-production in recent months, it would be hard to read this as anything other than likely the last we will hear of this game. With Avalanche Studios’ pedigree at making bombastic open-world action games, hopefully the team can be moved onto another project befitting its skills if Contraband is unable to be revived.