10 Upcoming Video Games That Are Already Doomed
4. Contraband
Contraband is a new co-op heist game set in the 1970s from Avalanche Studios, the team behind Just Cause, Mad Max, and Rage 2.
A glossy CGI reveal trailer first announced the game at E3 2021, and more than four years later we've heard nothing substantial about it whatsoever.
Most concerningly, we haven't had a follow-up trailer from Avalanche, any gameplay footage at all, or even a few in-development screenshots.
Given the popularity of co-op heist games, there's clear interest in the concept, and yet, the lack of forward-momentum makes it easy to believe that the project is stuck in development hell and struggling to achieve its full potential.
Last summer, The Verge's Tom Warren claimed that the game was "a ways off," and given that it didn't show at this year's Summer Games Fest, it's safe to say that we won't be seeing it until at least 2026.
Given that the live service space is wildly oversaturated right now and frankly littered with the corpses of countless failed big-budget efforts, it's also easy to picture Contraband struggling to maintain a player-base when it finally launches, no matter its quality.