August 10, 2025 | 10:17 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Microsoft has halted the development of Contraband, one of the latest Xbox and PC game projects, as quoted by Games Radar on Friday, August 8, 2025.
The game was being developed externally by Avalanche Studios, a Sweden-based developer known for the Just Cause series, with Microsoft as the publisher. Avalanche Studios confirmed the cessation of Contraband development on August 7, 2025. "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," stated Avalanche Studios.
According to the GameSpot website, news of the cancellation of Contraband emerged shortly after Microsoft laid off 9,000 employees, including dismissals in the Xbox division. At that time, the company was reported to be reviewing its game portfolio, which resulted in the cessation of development or funding cuts for several projects.
What is Contraband?
As reported by Game File, Contraband was first announced through a cinematic teaser at the Microsoft E3 2021 online event. The teaser showed the atmosphere of an upcoming co-op game from Avalanche and gave the audience a look at its background and characters, but no gameplay footage was revealed. At that time, the game was described as a cooperative open-world game set in Bayan, a fictional location in the 1970s.
Avalanche Studios Group is a Sweden-based video game developer and publisher located in Stockholm. Its parent company includes Avalanche Studios, Expansive Worlds, and Systemic Reaction.
Linus Blomberg and Christofer Sundberg founded Avalanche Studios in March 2003, focusing on developing open-world projects based on their game engine, Apex, which was previously known as Avalanche Engine. The company is well-known for creating the Just Cause and Hunter game series.
Since the announcement, Avalanche and Microsoft have hardly provided any updates or showcased gameplay footage. Although Microsoft declined to comment, sources familiar with the project revealed that the delayed development has been ongoing for five years.
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