software . radlal studios type privately held industry video game industry interactive entertainment founded march 2003 founder christofer sundberg linus blomberg headquarters stockholm sweden new york city us key people pim holfve ceo 1 fredrik sj coo 2 products just cause series mad max thehunter renegade ops number of employees 250 subsidiaries expansive worlds website www.avalanchestudios.se avalanche studios is a swedish video game developer based in stockholm sweden . it was founded in march 2003 by christofer sundberg and linus blomberg . avalanche studios focuses on developing open world projects and bases them on the avalanche engine . formed after the collapse of rock solid games the studio has expanded from six members to 250 staff members . as well as their main studio in stockholm they have two further studios a studio in new york city that worked on just cause 3 ; and a subsidiary studio in stockholm named expansive worlds that worked on thehunter . since the company s establishment it has worked on multiple projects including the just cause series of open world action adventure games published by eidos interactive and square enix and mad max . they have also developed some relatively less popular games including the free to play thehunter top down shooter renegade ops and rumble city their first mobile game . the company aims to begin self publishing new original intellectual properties in the future . contents 1 history 1.1 prior to founding 1.2 2003 2010 1.3 2011 1.4 2012 15 1.5 future 2 games 2.1 games developed 2.2 just cause series 2.3 mad max 2.4 other projects 3 philosophy 4 references 5 external links history edit prior to founding edit avalanche studios was founded by christofer sundberg and linus blomberg in 2003 . prior to the establishment of the studio sundberg had worked in video game publishing as well as fifa soccer for electronic arts . 3 both of them joined paradox interactive a video game publisher that had published games such as europa universalis . eventually sundberg and blomberg left and founded their own company called rock solid studios during the second quarter of 2001 . 4 the company partnered with conspiracy entertainment to develop a video game adaptation of tremors a movie series from universal pictures . titled tremors the game it was set to be released for personal computers playstation 2 xbox and nintendo gamecube in 2003 . during that period another stockholm based video game development studio starbreeze studios announced that they would acquire rock solid . the agreement between the two companies was ultimately broken by starbreeze and the acquisition was stopped . 5 in addition universal decided to cancel tremors the game which led rock solid to declare bankruptcy . 6 with the failure and collapse of rock solid sundberg and blomberg became unemployed and in debt . they eventually decided to start over in 2003 establishing avalanche studios with six other employees . 7 8 reflecting on the founding in 2015 sundberg stated that the studio was born in pure chaos and attributed their failure with rock solid to trusting the wrong people . 4 2003 2010 edit linus blomberg co founder of avalanche studios . 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 games 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 aionguard and just cause 2 . aionguard is a fantasy video game that was ultimately put on hold . 13 just cause 2 was announced in january 2008 . powered by the avalanche engine 2.0 avalanche studios in house engine the game included several new and improved features . 14 originally set to be released in 2008 15 the game subsequently missed its target release window . in 2008 the studio suffered from layoffs ; avalanche dismissed 77 staff members after the company lost approximately us 35 million due to the loss of two contracted projects . 16 one of them was later leaked as arcadia a game that was once was to be published by thq . 17 after the incident sundberg claimed that the company would remain as a small studio in the future . 18 just cause 2 was not released in 2009 which was regarded as a bad year for most companies including ourselves by sundberg . 19 in may 2009 20 more employees were laid off . 20 despite avalanche s layoffs development of just cause 2 was completed and the game was launched in march 2010 for microsoft windows playstation 3 and xbox 360 . 21 2011 edit 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 avalanche 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 new york city . 27 the studio was officially opened on 17 november 2011 and the first title set to be developed by the new york division was revealed . 28 codenamed project mamba the title was a aaa video game set to be released for next gen consoles and pc in 2014 . 29 the new studio is located in soho manhattan and is led by david grijns who was a former employee of activision and atari sa . 30 31 according to grijns avalanche studios chose new york city as their location due to less competition . they also aimed to change the inhospitable environment of the game industry there . 30 2012 15 edit in 2012 avalanche began the development of mad max . 32 prior to the game s development avalanche had pitched several projects that were set in a post apocalyptic environment to different publishers . while the original projects never came to fruition an opportunity was presented to avalanche studios by warner bros. interactive entertainment to develop a video game set within the mad max universe . film director and creator of the mad max franchise george miller was consulted during the game s pre production period . cory barlog the game director of god of war ii joined the studio in 2010 and left in 2012 . prior to his arrival he had already been working on a mad max game with miller leading to a confusing relationship between the two projects . 33 34 in august 2014 avalanche studios announced that they were developing several new projects calling 2015 the biggest year since the inception of avalanche studios more than a decade ago . 35 in addition the company announced that the stockholm based studio would be moved to a larger building for further expansion in the third quarter of 2015 . 36 mad max was originally set to be released in 2014 but was delayed to september 2015 . 37 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 will be the first title to be 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 games and was released on 7 july 2015 . 43 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 . 44 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 . 45 future edit 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 games edit games developed edit year title genre platform s ps2 ps3 ps4 xbox x360 xbo win lin ios droid 2006 just cause action adventure yes no no yes yes no yes no no no 2009 the hunter hunting simulation no no no no no no yes no no no 2010 just cause 2 action adventure no yes no no yes no yes no no no 2011 renegade ops top down shooter no yes no no yes no yes no no no 2015 the hunter primal hunting simulation no no no no no no yes no no no 2015 rumble city 46 turn based strategy no no no no no no no no yes yes 2015 mad max action adventure no no yes no no yes yes no no no 2015 just cause 3 action adventure no no yes no no yes yes no no no just cause series edit just cause is a series of open world action adventure games starring rico rodriguez as the protagonist an operative from the agency a military organization in just cause and just cause 2 . 47 the series is known for allowing players to create chaos and providing players freedom in exploring the game s world . 48 gameplay revolves around gunplay and the use of the grappling hook and parachute . 49 while the original just cause was not particularly well received by critics 50 its sequel just cause 2 received critical acclaim . the pc version of the game received an 84 out of 100 from metacritic a review aggregator . 51 some reviewers also regarded the game as one of the most entertaining sandbox shooters ever created . 49 upon release just cause 2 was proven to be more popular