It is confirmed that Microsoft has canceled Contraband for Xbox

Bloomberg has just confirmed what seemed to be an open secret, Contraband has been cancelled.

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After more than four years without official updates, one of the most mysterious exclusive projects on Xbox has been canceled. According to journalist Jason Schreier from Bloomberg, Contraband is no longer in development. The game was announced in 2021 as a collaboration with Avalanche Studios, responsible for Just Cause, but since then, we hadn’t heard anything concrete about its progress.

This cancellation adds to other recent decisions by Microsoft, which has restructured several of its studios after a wave of layoffs at the beginning of summer. Schreier himself indicates that this is one of the most notable cancellations, along with other unannounced titles. The last thing we knew about the game was that it seemed to have escaped the wave of layoffs last month, but it appears that it has finally fallen as well.

Contraband: an exclusive that never took off

The title had been presented as a cooperative adventure set in the 1970s, with exotic settings, smuggling, and an open world, developed with Avalanche’s Apex engine. However, since its teaser at E3 2021, it was never publicly shown again, nor did it appear in subsequent Xbox showcases.

• Studio: Avalanche Studios (Just Cause, Mad Max)

• Announced: 2021 (E3 Xbox Showcase)

• Current status: Canceled, according to Bloomberg

• Apparent reason: internal restructuring and prioritization of resources

The development of Contraband had reportedly faced several problems since its early stages, with design revisions and a lack of clear direction, according to sources close to the project. Finally, after the recent adjustments within Xbox Game Studios, it was decided to cancel the game definitively.