Xbox has stopped improvement of Contrabrand to “consider the undertaking’s future,” with a Bloomberg report saying the sport is canceled totally 4 years after its preliminary E3 announcement.
Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier first broke the news on Bluesky today, saying that “Xbox is canceling Contraband, introduced in 2021 from Avalanche Studios (Simply Trigger), after 4 years of radio silence, sources inform Bloomberg Information.”
This was adopted by an official confirmation from Avalanche on its website, which reads as follows:
Over the previous a number of years, Avalanche Studios Group and Xbox Sport Studios Publishing have collaborated on Contraband. Lively improvement has now stopped whereas we consider the undertaking’s future. We’re grateful for the joy we have seen fro mthe group since we introduced and can give an replace on what’s subsequent as quickly as we will.
Contraband was initially introduced for Xbox and PC at E3 2021 with a teaser trailer. On the time, we knew it could be set in a Nineteen Seventies smuggler’s paradise known as Bayan, however we did not see any gameplay. Since then, we have seen nothing additional of the sport, nor heard any progress on its improvement. Nonetheless, we did report that in 2022, administration and staff clashed over a controversial rent and an absence of subsequent communication, a dispute that later impressed the studio to type an official union membership and stress the corporate towards signing a collective bargaining settlement.
Xbox, in the meantime, has been canceling tasks left and proper amid a mass layoff final month that noticed 9,100 jobs eradicated Microsoft-wide, together with tons of in gaming. Within the aftermath, we realized that video games together with Everwild and Excellent Darkish had been canceled.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You will discover her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Bought a narrative tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.