Scrapping games halves Swedish Avalanche Studios

Swedish developer Avalanche Studios has to lay off 77 of its 160 employees because the company lost two contracts. The company is still working on Just Cause 2 and The Hunter.

The two contracts that Avalanche Studios lost this year would earn the developer 27 million euros. Due to the cancellation, the Swedes have to lay off 77 employees; that is almost half of the 160 people currently employed. The developer said which parties Avalanche had terminated contracts with not loose. Avalanche has two more games in development. It works for publisher Eidos on Just Cause 2 and for Emote Games on The Hunter.

Avalanche lost its first contract in February 2008, but the studio was still able to absorb that blow. The team members were deployed to develop their own, unannounced game, for which Avalanche started looking for a publisher. That search has now had to stop, with the result that staff have to be put on the street. The developer will lay off the staff who were hired last. The studio has therefore not chosen to fire the members of the team to be disbanded.

Avalanche director Christofer Sundberg regrets the layoffs, but also sees bright spots. He is convinced that his company will recover from the blow. Sundberg would like to make games according to his own concept with Avalanche, but the Swede realizes that publishers are mainly interested in existing concepts and titles, and Avalanche will focus on that for the time being. Moreover, he feels more comfortable in a smaller company. With a staff of 160, it was difficult to build a personal relationship with his people, and in the slimmed-down studio that should be possible again, says Sundberg.