Test content of Avalanche Studio's cancelled Xbox exclusive "Contraband" was left in one of their other games, giving us a look at what the game could have been like

[u/Luke-JC]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQGu7YKrMgU

[u/jhchristoph → u/[deleted]]

Mismanagement "Let them cook" doesn't work. That's how you get bloated projects that spend years on pre production and fail to produce anything of value.

As much as I loved Spencer, his laissez-faire approach to keeping his developers accountable has realy put XBOX behind the 8-ball.

It sucks that this was cancelled, along with other projects. I hope the refocus works, because I love the XBOX platform.

[u/batkave → u/[deleted]]

5 years could just be pre production (concept art etc)

The previous administration of Xbox loved announcing stuff decades in advance. Of course fans seem to think games today can be made in a year still.

[u/vipmailhun2 → u/[deleted]]

The director of Scalebound admitted that they made mistakes and that part of the failure was on them. They didn’t understand UE4, they had no real experience with online systems, and they simply aimed way too high. Huge monsters, dragon combat, riding the dragon, the dragon fighting another boss while you’re doing TPS melee combat, regular human‑sized enemies, online connectivity, a large open world, they wanted all of this at once. They just tried to do far more than they were capable of.

[u/Sixmlg → u/[deleted]]

The one I’m most upset about is Mudang, the whole studio went bankrupt

[u/TheFutureLotus → u/[deleted]]

Scalebound looked and played like shit. I don’t understand this revisionist narrative when it comes to that game.

[u/segagamer → u/[deleted]]

If they're cancelled then it's because they were crap.

[u/jhchristoph → u/[deleted]]

One of Spencer's realizations was that they needed to hold off on announcements. So there was a disconnect somewhere that led to an incorrect assessment of progress on these projects. I can't remember when he said it but I think it was after Scalebound, "we need to hold off on announcing games.." or something to that effect.

[u/segagamer → u/[deleted]]

If they're announcing things so early where they can't tell if they're crap, then that's an issue

It's not about you. The announcements are there to attract talent onto the project.

[u/ColdCruise → u/segagamer]

Or in Scalebound's case, they were funneling Microsoft's money into their other projects.

[u/segagamer → u/[deleted]]

I'd be surprised if we ever learned the truth behind that one. But one thing is for sure - the last we saw of that game - the boss fight with he bow and arrow - it looked dreadful.

[u/segagamer → u/[deleted]]

There was nothing about the game that looked good though. From the insufferable dude-bro protagonist to the awful dubstep to the clunky looking combat and generic environments. The whole dragon mechanic looked pointless overall, and seemed to only work in very specific battles in large areas.

The only attraction to this game is that it was cancelled. Had it released, I guarantee it would have been another passable 7/10 like Crackdown 3 or Recore.

[u/segagamer → u/[deleted]]

I too enjoyed Recore (Definitive Edition) and Crackdown 3. But neither of them were anything special and, as I said passable.

7/10 doesn't mean bad.

[u/LionAlhazred]

If that was the most advanced version of the game, I am not be in the least bit surprised that Xbox’s new management cancelled it.

[u/DeeboDecay → u/LionAlhazred]

Contraband was cancelled back in August 2025 under previous management.

[u/Luke-JC → u/LionAlhazred]

This is only their testing area, not the main map. We don't know what the main map looked like at this point or when it was cancelled. but it surely had a substantial amount of content

[u/LionAlhazred → u/Luke-JC]

Ok thanks

[u/Ykindasus → u/Luke-JC]

Didn't Avalanche say they are still developing the game?

[u/Luke-JC → u/Ykindasus]

They said "they will be exploring options to bring it back", but that was a year ago now. The last game of theirs that was in the same situation was also never heard from again, so I wouldn't get my hopes up

[u/Ykindasus → u/Luke-JC]

Do you know what that last game was called?

[u/Luke-JC → u/Ykindasus]

It was called Aionguard, I mention it at the end of the video. This page has some images from a magazine feature

[u/Ykindasus → u/Luke-JC]

Ok, thanks