Avalanche Studios Group
Parent Nordisk Film (2018–present) | | |
Subsidiaries |
| |
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Website | avalanchestudios |
Avalanche Studios Group is a Swedish video game developer and publisher based in Stockholm. It is a parent company that includes Avalanche Studios, Expansive Worlds, and Systemic Reaction. Founded by Linus Blomberg and Christofer Sundberg in March 2003, Avalanche Studios focuses on developing open world projects and bases them on their proprietary Apex game engine (formerly known as Avalanche Engine). The company is best known for developing the Just Cause game series.
Formed after the collapse of Rock Solid Games, the studio gained early success with the first
A casual gaming subsidiary, Expansive Worlds, was established in March 2010 to work on .
History
Background
Avalanche Studios was founded by Linus Blomberg and Christofer Sundberg in 2003. Prior to the establishment of the studio, Sundberg had worked in
2003–2010
When naming the company, Sundberg, Blomberg and the other employees brought up a list of military code words used during World War II. They ultimately decided upon "Avalanche" as the company's name.[4] The company worked on a prototype project called Rico: Terror in the Tropics in 2003. The project, designed by Sundberg himself, would eventually become Avalanche's first title, Just Cause. He pitched the game's concept to publisher Eidos Interactive, which was accepted.[3] According to Sundberg, he wanted to develop a game "where you could skydive onto the roof of a car and keep on going".[9] The game was released in 2006 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360.[10] Sundberg considered Just Cause to be the 'DNA' and 'center point of the studio', since it was the first game they developed.[9]
Following Just Cause, Avalanche began to provide technical assistance to theHunter. Originally developed and published by Emote Games, the franchise was acquired by Avalanche on 18 February 2010.[11] As theHunter is an online-activated game, Avalanche established a subsidiary studio called Expansive Worlds on 24 March 2010 to provide support to the continuous development of theHunter. The new studio will also work on new online games.[12]
Also in development during Avalanche's work on theHunter was
2011–2018
Upon the completion of Just Cause 2, Avalanche teased a new project.[22] A new downloadable title, called Renegade Ops, was announced on 30 March 2011.[23] The team was approached by Sega to develop a new downloadable intellectual property using the Apex Engine.[24] Compared to their past titles, the game's production and development periods were much shorter.[25] Renegade Ops was released on 14 October 2011.[26]
On 15 June 2011, Avalanche announced that the company would establish a new division in
In 2012, Avalanche began the development of
While Mad Max was being developed by Avalanche's studio in Stockholm, the New York division was working on Just Cause 3.[30] The development of Just Cause 3 also began in early 2012. While the previous Just Cause games were developed by the Swedish studio, the development of Just Cause 3 was transferred to the New York studio to give the title a fresh start.[38] The game was the first title published by Square Enix after their acquisition of Eidos Interactive.[9] Avalanche Studios sent a team to visit a jungle in Costa Rica to inspect the local landscapes and environments to help them create the game worlds for both Mad Max and Just Cause 3.[39]
In addition to Mad Max and Just Cause 3, a standalone expansion of theHunter featuring dinosaurs, titled theHunter: Primal, was released on Steam's early access on 15 December 2014. The full game was launched on 31 March 2015.[40][41] The company also released their first mobile title called Rumble City.[42] It is a turn-based strategy game and was released on 7 July 2015.[43]
In June 2015, vice president of business development Pim Holfve was promoted to Avalanche Studios's chief executive officer, the first to hold this post.[44] In October 2015, the company announced that both the New York office and the Stockholm office suffered minor lay-offs as the studio was undergoing major transition between projects and that it was unable to maintain multiple large teams during this period.[45] In June 2016, the Sweden office announced that they had hired Cameron Foote, the lead designer of Just Cause 2's multiplayer mod, to work on both Avalanche's "present and future projects".[46]
2018–present
In May 2018, Avalanche Studios announced that they had established a second Swedish office in Malmö.[47] Avalanche was announced in May 2018 to be co-developer of Rage 2 along with id Software.[48] In a video interview with Game Informer, Sundberg revealed that the company will focus on developing new original intellectual property in the future and, despite continuing to work with other larger publishers, the company's focus will be shifted to self-publishing.[7]
Nordisk Film invested US$10 million into Avalanche Studios in April 2017, acquiring the developer fully on 30 May 2018 for €117 million.[49][1] In June 2018, Avalanche announced a first-person shooter game, titled Generation Zero, scheduled for release on 26 March 2019.[50] On 10 June 2018, Just Cause 4 was announced at the Xbox Briefing at E3 2018, scheduled for release on 4 December 2018.[51] On June 25, 2018, Avalanche announced that it had 6 projects currently in development.[52]
The company announced it was reorganising as Avalanche Studios Group in March 2020, serving as a parent company to three subsidiaries, Avalanche Studios (which will continue to handle AAA titles like Rage and Just Cause), Expansive Worlds (for the outdoor themed titles like theHunter), and Systemic Reaction (for the self-publishing division for games like Generation Zero).[53][54] The company's first UK office was opened in Liverpool in June 2020.[55]
A 2021 hire for a project lead position led to repeated concerns employees reported to the company's management and
Games
Games developed by Avalanche Studios
Year | Title | Platform(s) | Publisher(s) | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
PS2 | PS3 | PS4 | Lin | Mac | Win | Xbox | X360 | XONE | XSX | iOS | AND | |||
2006 | Just Cause | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Eidos Interactive |
2009 | theHunter | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | Emote Games |
2010 | Just Cause 2 | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Eidos Interactive |
2011 | Renegade Ops | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Sega |
2015 | theHunter: Primal
|
No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | Expansive Worlds, Avalanche Studios |
Rumble City | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Avalanche Studios | |
Mad Max | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
| |
Just Cause 3 | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Square Enix | |
2018 | Just Cause 4 | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | |
2019 | Rage 2 | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Bethesda Softworks |
TBA | Contraband | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Xbox Game Studios |
Games developed by Expansive Worlds
Year | Title | Platform(s) | Publisher(s) | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
PS2 | PS3 | PS4 | Lin | Mac | Win | Xbox | X360 | XONE | iOS | AND | |||
2015 | theHunter: Primal | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Expansive Worlds, Avalanche Studios |
2017 | theHunter: Call of the Wild
|
No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Expansive Worlds |
2022 | Call of the Wild: The Angler | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Expansive Worlds |
Games developed by Systemic Reaction
Year | Title | Platform(s) | Publisher(s) | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
PS2 | PS3 | PS4 | Lin | Mac | Win | Xbox | X360 | XONE | XSX | iOS | AND | |||
2019 | Generation Zero | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Systemic Reaction |
2023 | Ravenbound | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Just Cause series
Mad Max
Generation Zero
Other projects
The team also worked on
The studio also worked on several cancelled projects. In 2009, Avalanche announced AionGuard, a God of War-style
On 14 May 2018, Bethesda announced Avalanche (along with id Software) as developers of Rage 2 for release on Windows PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.[48]
In June 2021, Avalanche announced Contraband, an open world co-op game.[86]
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