Mad Max, Rage 2, and Just Cause maker Avalanche Studios (not to be confused with Hogwarts Legacy maker Avalanche Software) hasn't returned to its signature open-world series in years, and the company's co-founder doesn't see a potential Just Cause 5 happening anytime soon, either.
Avalanche Studios co-founder Christofer Sundberg recently jumped online to react to leaked images of Contraband, the open-world co-op heist game that was recently scrapped by publisher Xbox after years in development. "Me and my team pitched Contraband back in 2017," Sundberg recalled. "It's changed quite a lot since then obviously, but it would have been fantastic to see it being released one day somehow."
Sundberg no longer works at Avalanche, though that didn't stop him from speculating about its future as he said that Just Cause 5 "would be a no-go since extremely few from the original team are there still."
"It's a qualified guess," he added. "The problems with JC4 was partly me (unwillingly) moving away from creative leadership to more corporate crap, publisher problems, team composition and roles and more. Sad, because looking at JC4 now, it shows so much promise."
After the tepid reaction to 2018's Just Cause 4 - a game I'll maintain had the best grappling, para-gliding traversal around - Square Enix quietly revealed it was working on a new game in 2022. Some posts from a former employee point toward that Just Cause project being canceled, however, as was the Just Cause Mobile spin-off.
The series isn't totally neck-deep in the bin, though. After years of development hell, the Just Cause movie is finally going ahead with John Wick and DC talent attached to the project. Maybe that'll be enough to resuscitate the franchise.
To tide you over until then, check out the very best open-world games to play right now.
