Avalanche Studios’ Contraband is no longer in active development, with the project now on hold as its future is evaluated. The news was first shared by Game File‘s Stephen Totilo and Bloomberg‘s Jason Schreier, in conflicting reports about its status. One report alleged the game had been outright cancelled, while another confirmed it was ‘on hold.’
In a brief announcement, Avalanche Studios has officially confirmed the project’s departure from active development, with wording that suggests there could still be a future for the game. Given precedent, it does feel unlikely that Contraband will recover, but the door isn’t quite closed yet.
‘Over the past several years, Avalanche Studiso Group and Xbox Game Studios Publishing have collaborated on Contraband,’ the notice 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.’
What was Avalanche Studios’ Contraband?
Prior to its development pause, Contraband had been a promising prospect. The game was first announced in 2021, as a co-op adventure game with a focus on smuggling in the fictional world of 1970s Bayan. Since its cinematic trailer announcement, very little had been revealed about the game, with developers working away quietly behind the scenes.
Despite the anticipating for a bigger announcement, it does appear that will likely never arrive. Per Game File, it’s not an outcome the studio wanted, as it reportedly ‘avoids cancellations as much as possible.’ Their hand was likely forced by significant cuts, with publisher Xbox Game Studios impacted by recent Microsoft-initiated layoffs.
At this stage, it’s unclear what Avalanche Studios’ next steps are, and whether it’s in a position to continue work on the game. It’s possible a new publisher could step in, but with budgets tighter than ever, that’s only a distant possibility.
For now, it appears Contraband is simply destined to join the long line of video games paused or cancelled outright in 2025. Since the start of the year, we’ve already seen a range of major titles pulled, with many Xbox Game Studios projects suffering this fate – including Rare’s Everwild, Perfect Dark, and a new MMO from ZeniMax Online Studios. We expect to see more names join this list in the coming year, although we hope the trend won’t continue, long-term.
Also on ScreenHub: Sony admits live service strategy hasn’t gone ‘smoothly’
Sony has admitted its live service strategy hasn’t gone ‘smoothly’ to date, with games like Concord and Marathon teaching important lessons for the future. In a recent investor Q&A related to the company’s Q1 2025 earnings (first reported by Edmond Tran of This Week In Videogames), Sony CFO Lin Tao was surprisingly candid about recent missteps.
In this meeting, shareholders asked direct questions about the impact of Marathon‘s recent delay, and the nature of Bungie as a studio, which opened the floodgates into a discussion of live service games, and Sony’s future outlook.
Per Tao, while Sony has faith in Marathon and doesn’t expect the game to be cancelled, the game, and its delay, has seemingly inspired changes at Bungie. ‘At the time of acquisition, we were offering a very independent environment,’ Tao said. ‘However, thereafter, we have gone through structural reform, as we announced last year. So this type of independence is getting lighter. So Bungie is shifting into a role which is becoming more part of PlayStation Studios. In the long term, you can see this as an ongoing process, so the direction is to become part of PlayStation Studios.’
Tao’s comments imply a shift towards greater control of Bungie, perhaps inspired by Marathon‘s long development cycle. Rather than having studios operating independently, with this possibly leading games down the ‘wrong’ path, there will now be an attempt to have PlayStation Studios as a more cohesive unit, with Sony oversight of all owned studios.
