Microsoft has stopped development on Contraband.
Stephen Totilo’s Game File newsletter initially reported that the game – which has been in development at Avalanche Studios – has ceased active development.
This has now been confirmed by Avalanche, which has posted a statement stating that “active development has now stopped” on the game.
Avalanche is best known for the studio behind the Just Cause series, and Contraband was set to offer a co-op open world game set in the 1970s.
However, although the game was originally announced with a cinematic trailer during E3 2021, nothing has been seen in the four years since that initial reveal.
Game File says Microsoft declined to comment on Contraband’s status, but that a source told the publication that the game had been in production for five years but was now “on hold”.
Since the report was published, Avalanche has now posted a statement confirming that the game is on hold, stopping short of saying it has been outright cancelled.
“Over the past several years, Avalanche Studios Group and Xbox Game Studios Publishing have collaborated on Contraband,” the statement reads.
“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.”
At the time of its initial reveal four years ago, Contraband director Omar Shakir called the open-world title the studio’s “most ambitious and spectacular game to date”.
“We’re taking everything that we’ve learned from 18 years of being at the forefront of creating beautiful, vast open game worlds filled with stunning vistas and incredible emergent gameplay moments,” Shakir said at the time.
Last month Microsoft’s gaming division confirmed it was making a fresh round of layoffs, with head of gaming Phil Spencer saying the cuts were designed to “end or decrease work in certain areas of the business and follow Microsoft’s lead in removing layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness”.
Following the news, it was then confirmed that Microsoft had cancelled Rare’s long-in-development RPG Everwild, as well as Perfect Dark (along with its studio The Initiative).
As well as the Just Cause series, Sweden-based Avalanche also developed 2015’s Mad Max and co-developed 2019’s Rage 2 with id Software.
