After years of silent development, Contraband was the latest title to get hit by Microsoft's cuts into staff and projects. In August, it came to light that Avalanche Studios Group and Xbox Game Studios Publishing had decided to stop active development and "evaluate the project’s future." While an outright cancellation has not been announced yet, Avalanche has now announced layoffs across all its locations and a studio closure.
The Liverpool office is the one closing as part of the latest cuts hitting the company, with layoffs also hitting its remaining Malmö and Stockholm locations.
"In light of current challenges to our business and the industry, we have thoroughly reviewed how to best ensure Avalanche Studio Group's long-term success," said the company today in a short message on its website. "This review had 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 Malmő and Stockholm, where we will reduce our workforce and restructure the teams to address our games' needs."
The company did not go into detail on how many of its staff are affected by these changes. The statement also did not say what the current status of Contraband is, or if it has any more projects in development.
This is the second time in recent years that Avalanche Studios has gone through office closures and layoffs. In 2024, the company let go of about 50 staffers while the New York and Montreal locations were fully shut down.
The Just Cause series developer was using its own Apex Engine for the development of Contraband, which was to be a cooperative game involving a smuggling experience. Aside from affecting this Xbox title, Microsoft cancelled three games and shut down one of its studios earlier this year.
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