Microsoft have halted development on Just Cause devs' 70s co-op smuggler Contraband

Following 4 years of soundlessness astir the game

Microsoft person brought improvement enactment connected Contraband, the co-op smuggling crippled that Just Cause developers Avalanche Studios announced backmost successful 2021, to a standstill. That's the authoritative line, portion a study from Bloomberg claims the game's been cancelled outright.

Nothing had been been seen oregon heard of Contraband since its uncover to the satellite astatine E3 4 years ago, and this abrupt presumption update comes conscionable weeks aft Microsoft cancelled Perfect Dark, Everwild, and an unannounced MMO from ZeniMax arsenic portion of wide layoffs that saw astir 9,000 unit suffer their livelihoods.

"Over the past respective years, Avalanche Studios Group and Xbox Game Studios Publishing person collaborated connected Contraband," reads a connection Avalanche enactment retired past night. "Active improvement has present stopped portion we measure the project’s future. We’re thankful for the excitement we’ve seen from the assemblage since we announced and volition springiness an update connected what’s adjacent arsenic soon arsenic we can."

That statement's accomplishment followed reports from some Bloomberg and Game File astir Contraband's fate. The erstwhile saw Jason Schreier assertion that this halt to improvement isn't conscionable a pause, but a full-blown cancellation decided connected by Microsoft. Meanwhile, the second said that the crippled has been enactment "on hold", linking the quality to Microsoft's July layoffs - which saw cuts successful Xbox’s publishing part that works with extracurricular improvement studios.

We'd already seen the consequences of those cuts and the telephone to halt backing respective unnanounced games, with Romero Games having backing for their upcoming FPS pulled, leaving them searching for a caller steadfast to get the task implicit the line. Some third-party games, including Kojima Productions' OD, are reportedly unaffected.

Contraband's premise sounds precise chill - you and your mates smuggling goods crossed borders successful "the fictional Southeast Asian satellite of 1970s Bayan". That E3 trailer, which has been acceptable to backstage connected Xbox's English YouTube transmission (but is inactive up connected the Mexican one), had immoderate Steely Dan successful the background.

"Yeah, you spell back, Jack, bash it again," spell the lyrics. "Wheel turnin' 'round and 'round. You spell back, Jack, bash it again."

We'll person to spot wherever the instrumentality for Avalanche, implicit 500 unit astatine whom unionised past year, turns next. That's assuming this genuinely is is the past halt for Contraband's convoy.