Avalanche to close Liverpool, cut Swedish staff as Contraband halted

Avalanche Studios Group announced on September 30, 2025, that it will close its Liverpool development studio and reduce staff at its Malmö and Stockholm offices after halting active development on Contraband, the Xbox-backed open-world cooperative game the company had been developing with Microsoft. The company said the moves follow a review prompted by "current challenges to our business and the industry" and will involve a collective consultation process in the United Kingdom as required by law.

Avalanche said the proposed closure will affect all employees in Liverpool and that workforce reductions and team restructurings are planned at its Swedish sites to realign resources with its games pipeline. The company added it will focus on offering support to affected staff while remaining committed to producing games for its player communities.

Contraband was announced in 2021 as a cooperative, open-world title developed primarily at Avalanche's Liverpool studio and planned as an Xbox exclusive. After a single cinematic reveal at the time, the project had little public-facing development news, and in August 2025 Xbox and Avalanche announced that active development on the game had...