{"id":2703,"date":"2026-04-25T13:41:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T10:41:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gamermarkt.com\/blog\/?p=2703"},"modified":"2026-04-25T13:43:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T10:43:04","slug":"avalanche-studios-new-aaa-open-world-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gamermarkt.com\/blog\/avalanche-studios-new-aaa-open-world-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Avalanche Studios Is Building an Unannounced AAA Open-World Game: Everything We Know"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Avalanche Studios has confirmed work on an unannounced AAA open-world game via a new job listing. Built on the Apex Engine, the project could be revealed within 12 to 24 months.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Avalanche Studios, the Swedish developer behind Just Cause and Mad Max, is working on an unannounced AAA open-world game. A job listing posted in April 2026 confirms the project, which is being built using the studio’s proprietary Apex Engine. The fixed-term contract runs until February 28, 2027, suggesting a formal reveal could arrive within the next 12 to 24 months. This marks the studio’s first confirmed AAA project since Rage 2 launched in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Does the Job Listing Reveal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Avalanche posted a Senior Technical Designer role on its Lever careers page. The listing describes the position as playing “a vital role in the development of an unannounced AAA project.” Responsibilities include scripting events, experiences, and systems in an open-world context, serving as a tech design generalist, and coordinating across multiple disciplines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The listing explicitly requires experience with the Apex Engine and its visual scripting editor. This confirms the new game will use the same technology stack that powered Just Cause 2 through 4, Mad Max, Rage 2, and Generation Zero. The role is based at Avalanche’s Stockholm headquarters in S\u00f6dermalm, the neighbourhood the studio has credited as visual inspiration for its games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Stage Is the Project In?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Reports indicate the team is currently in the prototyping phase. A small core group of programmers and designers is defining the project’s technical direction before scaling to full production. This approach aligns with Avalanche’s stated philosophy of testing new mechanics in a controlled environment early on. The studio has consolidated resources in its Swedish offices after significant restructuring throughout 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The February 2027 contract end date is a meaningful signal. It suggests critical pre-production milestones are expected within that window, and a public reveal could follow once the game reaches a presentable level of polish. Industry observers place the likely announcement somewhere between late 2026 and mid-2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is This Just Cause 5?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Almost certainly not. Avalanche co-founder Christofer Sundberg addressed this directly on X (formerly Twitter) in November 2025. He stated that Just Cause 5 “will not happen because almost none of the old crew is left.” When a fan suggested the series could “save the studio,” Sundberg responded: “I doubt it. They need to reignite the spark, take risks, annoy people, and do what others thought was impossible.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Just Cause franchise rights belong to Square Enix, not Avalanche. A LinkedIn profile revealed that Sumo Digital was separately developing Just Cause 5 from July 2021 to July 2023 before the project was cancelled mid-development. Between the rights situation and Sundberg’s comments, a fifth Just Cause from Avalanche appears firmly off the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Happened to Contraband and the Liverpool Studio?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Avalanche’s path to this new project runs through a turbulent 2025. Contraband, an open-world co-op smuggling game announced at E3 2021 in partnership with Xbox Game Studios, was put on hold after Microsoft’s sweeping layoffs in July 2025. Despite four years of development, no gameplay was ever publicly shown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fallout was severe. In September 2025, Avalanche announced the closure of its Liverpool studio and initiated workforce reductions in Malm\u00f6 and Stockholm. By November, 31 Liverpool employees had been let go and the studio was officially shut down. This followed the closure of Avalanche’s New York and Montreal offices in June 2024. In total, the company lost three studios in roughly 18 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The restructuring was described as necessary to “ensure Avalanche Studios Group’s long-term success.” With those painful cuts behind it, the studio appears to have redirected all AAA resources toward this single unannounced project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Makes Apex Engine Special for Open Worlds?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Apex Engine, originally called the Avalanche Engine, has been in development since the studio’s founding in 2003. It was first used in the original Just Cause in 2006 and has been iteratively upgraded across every major Avalanche release since. The engine was purpose-built for open-world games with a core philosophy the studio summarises as: “If you see it, you can go there. If you poke it, it reacts.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The engine’s strengths include massive draw distances, physics-driven destruction, dynamic weather systems, and large-scale environmental interactivity. These capabilities were showcased across diverse settings: the tropical chaos of Just Cause, the post-apocalyptic wastelands of Mad Max, and the naturalistic Scandinavian landscapes of theHunter: Call of the Wild. That versatility makes it difficult to predict the new game’s setting based on technology alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could It Be a New IP Entirely?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The strongest evidence points toward a brand-new intellectual property. The job listing does not reference any existing franchise. After Rage 2, Avalanche made a strategic decision to focus on developing original IPs and self-publishing its games rather than working under external publishers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is one lingering thread worth mentioning. In 2022, a rumour surfaced about a potential Mad Max sequel when an artist posted a photogrammetry scanning session at Avalanche and tagged the Mad Max game’s social media account. Avalanche never confirmed or denied this, and the rumour has gone quiet since. Whether the new project connects to Mad Max or represents something entirely fresh remains unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who Is Leading Avalanche Now?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Christofer Sundberg, co-founder and long-time creative driving force, left Avalanche in 2020 to start Liquid Swords. That studio is separately developing a GTA-inspired open-world crime game. Sundberg’s departure represented a significant shift in Avalanche’s creative identity, though the company retains co-founder Linus Blomberg and has built up new leadership over the past several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current studio pipeline is centred on this single unannounced title. By focusing all AAA development resources in Stockholm, Avalanche is betting on quality over quantity after a stretch of cancelled projects and studio closures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Does This Fit into the 2026 Open-World Landscape?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The open-world space in 2026 is extraordinarily competitive. GTA 6 targets a May 26, 2026 release. Fable, Forza Horizon 6, Crimson Desert, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, and Light No Fire are all in various stages of release or announcement. Avalanche’s project is unlikely to compete directly with any of these, given its early development stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That timing could actually work in Avalanche’s favour. By the time a reveal arrives in late 2026 or 2027, the initial wave of major open-world releases will have passed. If the studio can deliver something that leverages Apex Engine’s physics-driven interactivity in a way that feels distinct from the narrative-heavy or simulation-focused competition, it could carve out meaningful space in the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a broader look at the biggest games arriving this year, GamerMarkt’s 2026 upcoming games guide<\/a> covers the full release calendar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avalanche Studios: A Brief Studio History<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Founded in Stockholm in March 2003 by Christofer Sundberg and Linus Blomberg, Avalanche Studios has spent over two decades specialising in open-world game development. The studio’s first commercial release, Just Cause (2006), established the template for large-scale, physics-driven sandboxes that would define its output.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key releases include Just Cause 2 (2010), Mad Max (2015), Just Cause 3 (2015), Just Cause 4 (2018), and Rage 2 (2019, co-developed with id Software). The broader Avalanche Studios Group also encompasses Expansive Worlds (theHunter: Call of the Wild) and Systemic Reaction (Generation Zero, Second Extinction). Ravenbound, a 2023 PC release, was the group’s most recent shipped title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Should Players Expect Next?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Patience is the realistic answer. Avalanche is filling critical leadership and technical roles, which places the project firmly in pre-production. No title, no setting, no platforms, and no release window have been disclosed. The studio is expected to keep the project under wraps until it reaches a level of polish suitable for a proper reveal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most useful thing fans can do is monitor Avalanche’s official careers page and social channels. The February 2027 contract date is the strongest anchor point for when new information might begin to surface. Until then, the project remains one of the industry’s most intriguing unknowns: a veteran open-world studio, rebuilding from upheaval, pouring everything into a single new bet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Avalanche Studios has confirmed work on an unannounced AAA open-world game via a new job listing. Built on the Apex Engine, the project could be revealed within 12 to 24 months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[285],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gaming-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gamermarkt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gamermarkt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gamermarkt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gamermarkt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gamermarkt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gamermarkt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2705,"href":"https:\/\/www.gamermarkt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703\/revisions\/2705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gamermarkt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gamermarkt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gamermarkt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gamermarkt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}