Xbox cancels Contraband after 4 years of silence

An Xbox has ended the development of Contraband, four years after the game was announced at E3 2021. The information was disclosed by Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier and confirmed by the developer Avalanche Studios.

The studio published a statement on its website, stating that "active development has now stopped as we evaluate the future of the project." The note expresses gratitude for the community's excitement and promises news soon. Although Avalanche Studios talks about "evaluating the future," the Bloomberg report states that the game has been canceled.

Contraband was announced for Xbox and PC with a teaser describing it as a "smugglers' paradise" in the 1970s in a fictional location called Bayan, but gameplay was never revealed. Since then, the lack of news about the game's progress has raised doubts about its status.

The cancellation of Contraband is another in a series of projects terminated by Xbox after a round of mass layoffs that resulted in the elimination of 9,100 jobs across Microsoft, including hundreds in the gaming sector. Other canceled titles were Everwild and Perfect Dark.

The internal situation at Avalanche Studios was also not easy. In 2022, the team and management clashed over a controversial hiring and a lack of communication. The dispute led to the formation of a union at the studio, which pressured the company for a collective agreement.

Xbox continues with its restructuring strategy, focusing on projects that demonstrate greater potential. It remains to be seen what the next step for Avalanche Studios will be and if the Contraband project will be revived in the future by another publisher.