Avalanche Studios is closing its Liverpool studio and will reduce staff at other locations, the company says, after cancelling the Xbox-bound title Contraband and pausing active development on the project.
The closure follows the August decision to cancel Contraband, which the developer said at the time prompted a pause while it evaluated the project’s future: “Active development has now stopped while we evaluate the project’s future,” the studio said. Avalanche later confirmed that the Liverpool office will close and that additional changes will be made to teams in Stockholm and Malmo.
In a company statement linked on its site, Avalanche framed the move as a response to “current challenges to our business and the industry.” It said it had “thoroughly reviewed how to ensure best Avalanche Studios Group’s long-term success,” language that preceded the staffing and location changes.
The announcement also noted that all developers in Liverpool are affected. For Stockholm and Malmo, Avalanche said it will “reduce our workforce and restructure the teams to address our games’ needs.” You can read the studio update on Avalanche’s site here.
This move comes after a period of wider disruption at Microsoft and in the industry. Earlier this year, Microsoft cut nearly 4 percent of its workforce, a reduction reported to affect several games in development. The company also carried out an earlier layoff round in the spring. Those events were linked to the cancellation of multiple titles, including Contraband and other projects.
At the same time, Xbox leadership has publicly discussed franchise revivals and plans. Phil Spencer, for instance, spoke at the Tokyo Game Show in an on-stage interview about properties he’d like to see return. However, the recent cancellations and studio changes leave questions about how those plans will play out in practice.
Avalanche’s Liverpool closure is the latest example of consolidation and cuts affecting developers across the industry, as the company and its peers reassess how to structure their teams after a year of cancelled projects and workforce reductions.
