Avalanche Studios co-founder Christofer Sundberg says a fifth entry is highly unlikely – most key creators have left, and the studio has been reeling from Contraband’s cancellation and subsequent office closures and layoffs.

Sundberg left Avalanche at the end of 2020 to found Liquid Swords, now developing a new open-world title in the vein of Grand Theft Auto. The team recently shared around ten seconds of fresh gameplay to keep interest alive in the still-untitled project. Meanwhile, on X, Sundberg said Just Cause 5 would be a “no-go” because extremely few members of the original team remain at the studio.

“Me and my team pitched Contraband back in 2017 to MSFT (and signed it)… #JC5 would be a no-go since extremely few from the original team are there still.” He continued: “The problems with JC4 were partly me unwillingly moving away from creative leadership to more corporate stuff, publisher problems, team composition and roles. Sad, because looking at JC4 now, it shows so much promise. I doubt JC5 would save the company. They need to find the fire again, take risks, piss people off, and make games the rest said were impossible. I started Avalanche to break the mold, not to fit into one.”

The studio has endured a rough stretch: in August, Microsoft canceled Contraband, leading to the closure of Avalanche’s Liverpool office and layoffs across Stockholm and Malmö. Earlier, in June 2024, Avalanche shuttered its Montreal and New York offices. The most recent series entry, 2018’s Just Cause 4, drew mixed reviews and underperformed commercially, with Square Enix later acknowledging that sales did not cover development costs.

Source: WCCFTech, Christofer Sundberg on X, PC Gamer