Avalanche Studios’ Contraband Reportedly Canceled by Xbox

Xbox Recreation Studios has reportedly canceled Contraband, the following sport from Simply Trigger developer Avalanche Studios, following 4 years of silence from each studios concerning the sport.

That is in accordance with Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, who reported the cancellation on Bluesky. On condition that we have not heard something about Contraband for 4 years, its cancellation is probably unsurprising, but it surely’s a disgrace nonetheless.

After all, we did not know that a lot about Contraband to start with. When it was introduced in 2021, Avalanche stated the sport, which was to be a “co-op smuggler’s paradise”, could be the studio’s “most bold and spectacular sport to this point”, however past that, not a lot was revealed in regards to the venture.

Avalanche did say that the sport would make the most of Simply Trigger’s Apex Engine, and so far as we knew, the sport could be an Xbox Collection X|S unique, though given Xbox’s latest strikes in the direction of platform agnosticism, that won’t have been the case for lengthy.

Contraband’s cancellation comes after an enormous wave of Microsoft layoffs that noticed round 9,000 firm staff lose their jobs, in addition to high-profile sport and studio shutdowns underneath the Xbox model.

These included the cancellation of Uncommon’s Everwild, in addition to the shuttering of The Initiative’s reportedly troubled Good Darkish reboot, together with the closure of that studio. So far as we all know, Uncommon stays operational, though it would not have any lively tasks which have been introduced publicly.

In line with what a Microsoft spokesperson informed Schreier, regardless of these high-profile shutdowns, Hideo Kojima’s OD, which is able to function a collaboration with Xbox Recreation Studios, remains to be in growth (in the interim, a minimum of).

It is unclear what’s subsequent for Avalanche Studios after the cancellation of Contraband, however in the interim a minimum of, you will not be visiting the studio’s smuggler’s paradise anytime quickly. Keep tuned for extra on this and all different issues Xbox.