Avalanche gives statement after Xbox publishing deal cancelled

Last night, it became clear that there was another casualty in the recent Xbox shake-up. Xbox has cancelled its publishing deal and funding for Avalanche's new game, Contraband. Now, Avalanche has confirmed that the project has been paused while the studio looks into its options. 

Xbox announced Contraband as an Xbox Series X/S exclusive back in 2021. However, since then, the game has not been shown again. Initially, the title was expected to release in 2022, but that year came and went with no further mention of Contraband.

In a statement confirming the news that Xbox had cancelled the game's publishing deal, Avalanche Studios said: “Over the past several years, Avalanche Studios Group and Xbox Game Studios Publishing have collaborated on Contraband. Active development has now stopped while we evaluate the project's future”.

The statement ends by saying “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”.

Contraband finding a new publisher likely hinges on how far along the project is. It is still unclear how close the game was to being finished and ready for release. If the game was only a year or less out though, then chances are Microsoft wouldn't have pulled out of the deal.

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KitGuru Says: Contraband is another in a long list of major cancellations at Xbox since 2018. Hopefully Avalanche can figure things out and find a new publishing partner to finish this game up, rather than being scrapped entirely. 

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