Specifically, Avalanche Studios – which has offices in Stockholm, Malmo, Liverpool, New York, and Montreal – is shutting down two of its studios- namely, the ones in New York and Montreal. That will also mean 50 employees across those two offices being laid off.

“This is an exceptionally difficult decision, but we believe it’s necessary to ensure a stable and sustainable future for the company,” Avalanche writes. “Our focus is now on supporting all Avalanchers through this challenging time. We’re grateful for the invaluable contributions of those leaving and remain committed to creating incredible gaming experiences for our players.”

Avalanche’s Montreal studio was opened as recently as October of last year. The company joins several others that have cut large numbers of jobs over the last year and a half, including the likes of PlayStation, Microsoft, Sega, Riot Games, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, and many others.

Avalanche Studios is currently working on open world co-op game Contraband in collaboration with Microsoft. Announced in 2021, the game is still without a release date, with reports claiming it has faced development issues behind the scenes.

Avalanche Studios has become known for developing games with big, massive open worlds. From the Just Cause franchise, with each entry being bigger and bigger, to RAGE 2, which had a fairly large open world, too. While we aren’t too sure what the studio is developing just now, only that they have several projects in the works, it seems for at least one of them they are going big once more.

The company is hiring for several key positions on a new as of now unnamed title. It’s referred to in some grand terms such as being the “largest” and “greatest” project the company has worked on, even promising their animation quality to the highest point in the studios history. Those positions include Gameplay Animation Programmer, Senior World Designer and more through their NYC-based location. You can read about those positions through here.

Most likely, whatever this game is, we won’t be hearing about for awhile and it’s almost certainly in development for next generation consoles. The company has proven they know how to go big, however, so whatever it is, odds are it’ll be pretty incredible in scope.

For as long as Avalanche Studios has been around, Christofer Sundberg’s name has been associated with it. He directed the first Just Cause in 2006 and co-founded the studio along with current chief technical officer Linus Bloomberg. However, his stint with the studio is coming to a close soon.

Sundberg recently announced on Twitter that he would be leaving Avalanche by April end. Coincidentally, this is before the release of RAGE 2 in May, which the studio has been developing with id Software. It seems that Sundberg will still be around for when Generation Zero, Avalanche’s co-op open world survival shooter, releases in March.

While Sundberg didn’t specify his reason for leaving or what he planned to do afterwards, his time spent “working together with fantastic individuals and teams” was noted. As for RAGE 2, it’s out on May 14^th for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Thanks to Avalanche co-developing the title, it’s also using the Apex Engine to build the world and power the action.

https://twitter.com/CHSundberg/status/1098615868756541441

Do keep in mind, that though it’s natural to assume that when we talk about big game maps, we might be talking about open world games only- but that’s not the case. Whether its an open world game, or an open ended game that’s not particularly open world, or a huge map that we’ve seen in multiplayer play- it’s all fair game for this list. Also, do keep in mind that randomly generated maps were not considered for this feature.

A final note before we begin- there’s every possibility that we might have missed out on some game you were expecting to see on this list, and if we did, it’s either because the exact sizes of their maps aren’t known to us, or because we simply forgot! If it’s the former, and you know what the sizes are, please tell us! If it’s the latter, please remind us.

So without further ado, let’s jump into it.

#50. ASSASSIN’S CREED UNITY

The open world action by developers Ubisoft has its fair share of issues, sure, but its world is one aspect that can’t be faulted. It’s a joy to explore, and it’s also pretty big. At about 2.4 km2, there’s more than enough space in this virtual world to explore and lose yourself in.

It looks like our report yesterday regarding Just Cause possibly coming to Xbox One via the backward compatibility program was correct. Just Cause has indeed been confirmed to be one of the games headlining the newest batch of titles being added to the service today by Microsoft, as confirmed by Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb on Twitter,.

But Just Cause isn’t the only big game being added this time around, either—in fact, unusually enough, all four of the games that are included in this batch are arguably “big”. Alongside Just Cause, the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow trilogy—so the two numbered games, and Mirror of Fate HD—will also now be playable on Xbox One. While Lords of Shadow 2 and Mirror of Fate HD were pretty disappointing, the original Lords of Shadow was a great and compelling reboot despite its flaws, and fans of the series should take this opportunity to look into it.

As is always the case, all these games can now be purchased on the Xbox Store on Xbox One directly.

https://twitter.com/majornelson/status/1057301141980033024?s=21

It sounds like Just Cause — the original game — may be inbound on Xbox One’s backward compatibility feature soon. The store page for the game seems to have been updated, and it is now showing a release date of October 29 2018. Which is a decade later than it actually came out.

Typically, these sorts of updates predate or accompany a game launching on the backward compatibility service on Xbox One. That said, Just Cause has not yet been announced for the service, nor is it available to buy on Xbox One’s store. This seems to suggest an announcement for it may be incoming, and this update was made a bit ahead of time.

If this happens, every single Just Cause game will be playable on the Xbox One—3 is already an Xbox One game, and 4 is due out later this year for it. 2 was made backward compatible all the way back in 2015, and was in fact given to Xbox One owners for free with 3. So for fans of Just Cause, Xbox One is the ultimate console.

Make sure to check out the newest video for the upcoming Just Cause 4.

The GTA5 modding continues to thrive and experiment with the game in absolutely new and unexpected ways. The latest mod we are talking about here may not be as groundbreaking or even novel as some of the other mods we have discussed previously, but it’s still just great fun- it adds the grappling hook from the Just Cause games to GTA5, allowing you to attach the hook to pretty much everything, from buildings and cars, to random NPCs.

You can even chain them together, and to yourself. It’s hilarious, it’s chaotic, and it adds even more mayhem to a game that is already a boiling broth for mayhem. You can check out what the ensuing chaos is like in the video above, and you can download the mod, made by JulioNIB, from here.

GTA5 launched on Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2013; it launched last year on PS4 and Xbox One, and the PC release came earlier this year. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage and information.

VideoGamer.com today received an Email from Avalanche Studios, the creators of the hugely popular open world action game Just Cause and Just Cause 2, saying that they still have “several surprises planned for next year”…please, please, please let one of them be an 8th gen Just Cause game.

The email goes to on to say, “Next year, players will be able to roam the lethal open-world wasteland of Mad Max. In addition, theHunter is on a record breaking streak. More than a million players have signed up for the world’s most realistic wildlife experience since the Steam introduction earlier this year, bringing the total number to over 4 million.”

We haven’t heard much about the Mad Max game that was unveiled at E3 which everyone initially mistook as a Fallout 4 teaser.

All that aside, saying “2015 is set to be the biggest year since the inception of Avalanche Studios more than a decade ago” certainly makes it seem that Avalanche has a lot of faith in the upcoming year. I just want Just Cause 3, seriously, give me that.

Source

The first Just Cause came out in 2006 and was published Eidos Interactive for the Xbox, PS2, PC and even the Xbox 360. Like Grand Theft Auto, it aimed to introduce an open world in which players could go where they please and do as they please.

Taking place in the 391 square mile island of San Esperito, Just Cause had you playing as Agency operative Rico Rodriguez as he works to overthrow the dictator, Salvador Mendoza. Mendoza, like any despot, has weapons of mass destruction and it’s up to Rico to put a stop to his scheme. With extreme prejudice, of course.

Just Cause featured a rather short storyline campaign but prospered with over 300 different side missions to take part in. The basic elements of a signature gameplay were beginning to take form here, as players could pilot a variety of vehicles and perform all manner of stunts like base jumping, skydiving and even parasailing by latching on to a car or boat and deploying the parachute.

Such antics proved an aside from the usual mundane chores of Grand Theft Auto.

But it wasn’t until Just Cause 2 that things really kicked into gear.

The sequel was published by Eidos Interactive in 2010 for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, but now distributed by Square Enix. It also introduced the new Avalanche Engine 2.0 and implemented Havok Physics into the mix. Rico Rodriguez returned again, aiming to overthrow another dictator – Pandak “Baby” Panay – on the island of Panau and also facing off against his mentor from the previous game, Tom Sheldon.

Unlike the original, Just Cause 2 embraced its open world nature and rather than progressing through simple campaign missions, players had to generate Chaos. With enough Chaos, one could unlock new Agency missions and proceed to assault strongholds that held their sway over the island.

And how did one generate Chaos?

You could go around collecting items. That’s one way. You could also perform different side missions. That’s another way. Or you could assault bases, blow shit up while parachuting into territories, hijack and lasso a jet for transportation, string several baddies together and execute them with whip attacks, ramming a helicopter into an airport hangar, pilot vehicles into sub-orbital base jumps onto bridges where cars await to be jacked, and even blow up a whale.

We haven’t even gotten to holding off the super tankers.

The grappling hook quickly became one of the more awesome additions to the game. Despite the lack of super powers, as was seen in games like Prototype and inFamous released around the same time, Just Cause 2’s grappling hook was enough to give Rico an edge over an entire island army. You could either grapple towards objects normally, using the hook to assist in glides with the parachute, or as a melee weapon.

One of the more innovative uses of the hook was to pull enemies towards you and shoot them up, along with attaching one end of the hook to an enemy while attaching the other to a random object that they would then be pulled towards. Much hilarity ensued, especially when you knocked two enemies’ heads together (literally). And who hasn’t hooked an enemy on to a passing aircraft and watched them sail off into the wild blue yonder?

The level of destruction in the game was nothing to scoff at either. Entire bases could be levelled with the use of explosives and well-timed vehicular violence. And unlike some games where the level of violence, the level of Chaos was meant to be fun in its own right, it served a purpose in Just Cause 2. Avalanche Studios wanted you to have fun in the world they created – all 400 square miles of it.

In a way, Just Cause felt like a tribute to all the old school action movies we grew up with. Movies like Commando, Rambo and Predator, where the point was balls to the wall action at every turn. It was ridiculous, it was clever, it was fun and it got the blood pumping. Shit blew up good, and never stopped blowing up for any reason.

As it stands, open world action adventure games will come and go. Upcoming games like Saints Row IV and Grand Theft Auto V add elements of chaos and randomicity to their inner workings, the former taking it to hilarious levels of over-reaction and the latter looking to employ its own action movie style of adrenaline, referencing films like Heat with its heists.

Despite this, Just Cause, especially the sequel, will always hold a fond place in our hearts for the pure, lucid simplicity of Chaos it presented. Because, seriously, how many games let you blow up whales?

However, former Avalanche Studios development director Oskar Burman shared some interesting info via Twitter. “Actually, wanting to work with Star Wars goes deep in Sweden. Long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, we almost got that deal when I was at Avalanche.”

Founder and CCO Cristofer Sundberg later chimed in that, “If they had given us the deal back then, LucasArts would be alive today. A massive Star Wars open-world game! We would have rocked it.”

And when it comes to open world, Avalanche surely knows what its doing. Would you have been stoked for an open world Star Wars game? Or is the thought of a Frostbite 3 Star Wars game better? Let us know below.