Avalanche Studios Group, the developer behind the Just Cause series, announced today that it is shutting down its studio in Liverpool and laying off its British staff. It’s also reducing its workforce at its Swedish offices due to “current challenges to our business and the industry.” This news follows at least one major game cancellation, the Xbox Game Studios project Contraband.
The Liverpool studio is not the company’s headquarters, which is in Stockholm. However, Avalanche noted in its public statement that the closure of that studio is part of a company-wide review, and that other planned changes include workforce reduction at its Stockholm and Malmö locations. It intends to “restructure the teams to address our games’ needs.”
Avalanche previously restructured in 2020, keeping Avalanche Studios and adding two new divisions: Self-publishing label Systemic Reaction and developer Expansive Worlds. In 2024, it closed its two North American locations in Montreal and New York. Then, as now, the studio said its focus was on supporting its employees during their “challenging time.”
Microsoft confirmed last month that its previously announced open-world co-op game Contraband, to be developed by Avalanche, is on indefinite hiatus if not outright canceled. At last report, Avalanche said that it and Microsoft would “evaluate the project’s future,” and that it would “give an update on what’s next as soon as we can.” It’s far from the only project that Microsoft has announced in the last year, with other titles like Everwild and Perfect Dark being shelved.