avalanche-studios posts

Avalanche Studios may have just announced a new downloadable only action game, Renegade Ops, but that doesn't mean that the Sweden-based game developer has abandoned making big AAA retail game titles. Speaking to Eurogamer, Avalanche's founder Christofer Sundberg states, "We are not finished with traditional boxed retail games by far. We have two huge licenses that we work on to be released in 2013."

The report speculates that one of those games could be an adaptation of the upcoming fourth film in the Mad Max series but Sundberg would not confirm that. And what about a third game in Avalanche's Just Cause open world action game series? Sundberg states, "I can't really comment on the future of Just Cause but as we created the IP there is an attachment to the studio even though we don't own the IP."

The development team behind the popular Just Cause open world action games, Avalanche Studios, have officially announced its next project, a co-op themed military shooter called Renegade Ops. The game will be a downloadable only title and will be published by Sega for the PC and other platforms.

The game has players take control of members of an elite military unit out to stop a madman known only as "Inferno" from taking over the world. The game promises single player support, offline two player co-op and full on four player online co-op play as the team fights "across a range of stunning environments using a wide variety of vehicles." Look for lots of weapons as well including a "huge Gatling gun armed to the teeth." Renegade Ops looks to shoot first sometime later in 2011.

Avalanche Studios' CEO Christofer Sundberg has a strong distaste for DRM set-ups in PC games. The head of the studio behind the Just Cause open world game series told Computer and Video Games, "I think piracy wouldn't be as much of an issue if there were better PC games out there. We could just scrap the whole concept of stupid DRM." Indeed he hates the very idea of DRM in games, saying " ... Forcing people to be online all the time and so on doesn't show respect to the people who actually buy PC games."

Sundberg also doesn't care for PC ports of console games, saying, "You end up just doing a port, so there's not a lot of time, budget or creative thinking going into using the PC." He adds, "I would like at some point to do a really good PC game designed specifically for PC players."

It's a little unusual for an official web site for a game to post anything about an upcoming movie version but the Just Cause 2 web site is doing just that. A new interview on the site with the movie's producers Adrian Askarieh and Eric Eisner gives some more info on the forthcoming movie version of the open world action game series.

The producers are keeping the storyline a secret saying only that it's an origin story for the game's lead character. You can expect to see the "incredible cinematic elements of his signature weapons and the stunts, including the fast- becoming-iconic, Grappling Hook." The interview strongly hints that the movie could be filmed for 3D theaters and that an actual title for the film will be revealed in January.

While plans for a Kane and Lynch movie are apparently in a holding pattern, another Square Enix game franchise is moving forward with its Hollywood film plans. Variety reports that the film adaptation of the Just Cause open world action game series has found itself a screenwriter.

Michael Ross, who has credits like the "tourists meet up with bad people" movie Turistas, will be handling the script writing duties on the Just Cause movie adaptation. Adrian Askarieh, who produced the Hitman movie and is also a producer of the Kane and Lynch film, is also a producer for the Just Cause movie. He is teaming up with L+E Pictures to shop the project to the various Hollywood studios. Will this be the movie that breaks the "crappy video game movie adaptation" curse? Stay tuned.

Last March, developer Avalanche Studios and publisher Square Enix released the open world action game sequel Just Cause 2. Since then the game has racked up a ton of game time from its various players. How many? According to a just released (and very tall) info page, players have given up a total of 26,118,470 hours since it shipped to stores. Over 15,500 players have put in over 50 hours each in the game and one player has logged in a total of 1,100 hours in the fictional island nation.

There's lots more info and player stats to be found in the document including how a player dies in the game (as you can see above, Just Cause 2 players bite it in explosions more than anything else). You can check out the stats for yourself in our gallery (and yes you will have to scroll down just a bit to see it all).

The PC version of the open world action game Just Cause 2 remains one of the few PC games out there that cannot be played natively in Windows XP (although you can play the OnLive streaming version). Now Steam is giving folks a chance to get the full game at a much lower price this weekend.

From now until the end of the weekend you can purchase and download the Avalanche Studios-developed open world action game for just $24.99. That's a 50 percent price cut from its normal price. In addition all seven paid DLC additions to the game are on sale for 50 percent off as well, making them just 49 cents to download.

The recent open world action game Just Cause 2 just got a little more fun to play today. Developer Avalanche Studios has just announced that the team is adding a new and free vehicle in the game as an update via Steam. The Tut Tut Boom Boom (the one on the right) turns the fairly useless transport into a slightly less-than-useless vehicle with a massive cannon along with improved handling and speed.

In addition to the Tut Tut Boom Boom free download, all of the pre-order promotional in-game items for Just Cause 2 (two weapons and two vehicles) are now accessible to anyone in the game as paid downloads (The Chaos parachute is the lone exception).

Developer Avalanche Studios is best known in the game industry for its Just Cause series of blow-em-up open world action game. The series is a solid sales success and there's even talk of a movie version. So what will Avalanche Studio's next game be like?

Surprisingly it sounds like it will be a little more conventional. Computer and Video Games chatted with the studio's head man Christofer Sundberg who said, " ... we have made a move towards the more controlled experience to better convey a strong storyline." Not only that but the game will be a licensed title this time instead of an original work. Sundberg states, " ... we wanted to try a license, but there's only been a few that we've felt was 100 per cent right for the studio. This one is perfect!" We hope so.

Debates over how, or even if, DRM set-ups should be put in PC games have been raging for a long time now. This week the CEO of the developer Just Cause 2 has put in his two cents, saying that "ridiculous DRM solutions" actually harm PC gamers more than the pirates that the DRM is trying to thwart.

Chatting with Computer and Video Games, Avalanche Studios boss Cristofer Sundberg is quoted as saying, " ... piracy has scared the market to start implementing ridiculous DRM solutions that only limits the consumers that actually PAY for their games, not stopping the pirates." He also feels that PC games that also show up on other platforms should be designed specifically for the platform and not just be a simple port, saying, "If we constantly keep on delivering console ports and not games design (sic) for the PC player, the PC market will suffer from bad sales, piracy and bad DRM solutions." Indeed the PC port of Just Cause 2 is a DirectX 10 exclusive with a number of graphical features that are only on the PC version.

Gallery: Just Cause 2