Avalanche Studios Group will lay off 9% of its workforce after putting locks on the doors of two of its studios in two locations.

Avalanche Studios is known for the Just Cause series, 2015’s Mad Max, and Renegade Ops, but they also helped id Software develop Rage 2. Now Contraband is being made for Xbox Game Studios (or is it?), so the team is very busy these days. However, the staff had to be thinned out after the studios in New York and Montréal were closed and about 50 people were laid off.

The Avalanche statement reads: “Since its inception over two decades ago, Avalanche Studios Group has grown to include five locations worldwide: Stockholm, New York, Malmö, Liverpool and Montréal. Today we are sad to announce the closure of two of these locations: New York and Montréal. This means that we’ll be saying goodbye to about 50 valued friends and colleagues, or about nine percent of Avalanche’s global staff.

This is an extremely difficult decision, but we believe it’s necessary to ensure a stable and sustainable future for the company. Our focus is now on supporting all Avalanchers through this difficult time. We’re grateful for the invaluable contributions of those who are leaving and remain committed to creating incredible game experiences for our players,” Avalanche wrote.

The saddest story is that of their Montréal studio. Here, last October, they bought Monster Closet, founded by former Ubisoft employees. So the team was under Avalanche for only 8 months. That’s very little time. And in the meantime, Just Cause 4 has been out for six years. Will they even return to this IP or is it over?

Even though they didn’t lay off that many people, it’s still a layoff. We’ve been hearing that a lot lately and it’s not going to end anytime soon. What’s next for Avalanche Studios? We cannot answer that question.

Source: Gematsu, Avalanche