Microsoft

Goodbye to Contraband: Microsoft continues the bloodbath and cancels another Xbox game after almost five years in development

The creators of Just Cause, Mad Max, and Rage 2 had been working on the action title for almost five years.

Update: Aug 7th, 2025 23:10 CEST

2025 is proving to be a turbulent year for Xbox—and for the video game industry in general—as Microsoft has been hit by waves of mass layoffs, studio closures, and the suspension of various projects. Today, August 7, we have to mourn yet another addition to the bloodbath: Contraband, the open-world action game from Avalanche Studios, has been canceled.

The studio behind titles such as Just Cause and Mad Max has announced that it will “evaluate the future” of the project and that “active development has been halted.” Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier, meanwhile, reported a few minutes earlier that “Contraband is being canceled.” Schreier also commented that, according to his sources, the development of OD, Kojima’s game that you will either love or hate, is still ongoing.

All canceled Xbox games in 2025

Everwild - It’s been almost ten years since the game was first conceived and more than five since it was officially announced, making it one of the most traumatic losses, especially considering that Phil Spencer himself assured us earlier this year that the project was still going ahead.
Perfect Dark - The ambitious project from The Initiative was unveiled last year, but it was one of the games that was abruptly canceled after the studio’s closure was confirmed.
Project Blackbird - This is a project by ZeniNax Online Studios, the developers behind The Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 76, among others. It was a third-person sci-fi looter shooter game, but we’ll never get to see it.
John Romero’s game - He is a video game legend and was working on a shooter that will never see the light of day, as Brenda Romero, his wife, shared a statement confirming that funding for the project had been suddenly withdrawn. Romero Games is not a Microsoft studio, but one of its employees has revealed that he has lost his position on the team due to layoffs at the American company, indicating that it is the publisher that has decided not to fund the development.
Contraband - As we have shared with you, Avalanche Studios has ceased development of this title.