Known best for developing the Just Cause series, Avalanche Studios have retreated into the shadows for the past few years, with their next big thing – the open world co-op ‘Contraband’ – being unceremoniously cancelled last year. It seems the team have gotten back on their horses, with job listings revealing Avalanche to be working on “an unannounced AAA project.”

As discovered by the publication Insider-Gaming, a new job listing posted by Avalanche Studios appears to indicate that the team are currently working on a new project in the wake of Contraband’s cancellation last year.

Searching for a new ‘Senior Technical Designer’ the job listing include a number of early details on what the project might be, stating:

“You will play a vital role in the development of an unannounced AAA project,” adding that it’ll require knowledge in “scripting events, experiences, and systems in open-worlds.”

Nothing else is currently known about the project aside from the fact that it is an unannounced AAA project and that it will be open-world in nature.

As mentioned, Avalanche are known best for creating the Just Cause franchise – a series of chaotic and fun open world sandbox-like shooters. That said, the team have worked on all sorts over the years, including developing 2019’s RAGE 2; 2015’s Mad Max and ‘theHunter' series.

It will be interesting to see whether the team opt to create a new entry in any of these franchises, or if it will be something entirely different. We will have to wait and find out.

KitGuru says: What do you think of this job listing? Would you like to see the team make Just Cause 5, or has that ship already sailed? Let us know your thoughts down below.

Crimson Desert has been dominating gaming discussions for the past week or so, with players sinking hundreds of hours into exploring the game. As it turns out, Avalanche, the studio behind Just Cause, had a similar game in the works, but publishers were unwilling to take a chance on it. 

Crimson Desert is a massive open world game, but it is more in line with Zelda Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom rather than something like Assassin's Creed. The game offers a huge open-world sandbox, where exploration, discovery and problem solving are centre to the experience, rather than mindlessly checking off items on a never-ending list of activities.

In a recent interview with PCGamer, Avalanche co-founder, Christofer Sundberg, explained that his former studio had a very similar idea for a game of their own, titled AvionGuard, more than a decade ago. He says that everything he has seen from Crimson Desert was in their plans for that title.

However, the game lost its publishing deal. Avalanche tried to save the project by announcing the game, but no other publisher was willing to sign the game to a deal and it was ultimately cancelled. Eventually, Avalanche ended up sticking with Just Cause and branched out with 2015's Mad Max game.

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KitGuru Says: On paper, Crimson Desert doesn't sound like a hit. There is little handholding through the experience, the controls are a little complicated and storytelling takes a pretty clear backseat to gameplay and immersion. However, I have found it to be one of the most gripping and fun-to-play open-world games in years. It would be interesting to see more studios take on this style of RPG and I'm surprised that Crimson Desert is really the only major game to attempt it after the success of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.