Avalanche Studios Group, the company behind the Just Cause franchise, is closing down two offices and laying off roughly 9% of its global workforce.
Both the US and Canadian studios will be shuttered as part of the Avalanche Studios Group restructure, with 50 staff members impacted. The Stockholm and Malmö studios in Sweden, and the Liverpool studio in the UK will remain open. Avalanche only announced plans to open the Canadian office in October last year after the acquisition of Montreal-based Monster Closet.
“This is an exceptionally difficult decision, but we believe it’s necessary to ensure a stable and sustainable future for the company,” a statement from Avalanche announcing the closures reads. “Our focus is now on supporting all Avalanchers through this challenging time. We’re grateful for the invaluable contributions of those leaving and remain committed to creating incredible gaming experiences for our players.”
Avalanche has been running for over two decades, and beyond the Just Cause series also has 2015’s Mad Max under its belt, as well as being a co-developer of Rage 2 alongside id Software. What these layoffs mean for Avalanche’s upcoming title Contraband, which was originally revealed in 2021, isn’t clear just yet.
The Avalanche layoffs and studio closures are another in the long-running list of game industry job losses that have become more and more frequent over the last couple of years. Only last month, Xbox announced the closures of Tango Gameworks, Arkane Austin, and Alpha Dog Games, and prior to that the industry has seen layoffs across Blizzard, Riot Games, and the long saga of troubles over at the (currently being renamed and restructured) Embracer Group.
It doesn’t look like we’ve reached the light at the end of the tunnel for a particularly difficult period for the game industry by any means yet. Our thoughts are with the impacted staff over at Avalanche Game Studios.
Image: Avalanche Studios Group
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