According to the LinkedIn page of one of the developers at Sumo Digital (the assumed partner of Avalanche Studios for the last three years of development of Just Cause 5) it would appear that the game has been canceled. There are indications that the game was about halfway done when development was scrapped nearly two years ago, leaving many to wonder what went wrong; Was the game itself not meeting the expectations of the studios, or was it perhaps a rift between the co-developers?
It’s been about seven years since the last mainline Just Cause title launched to mixed reviews and failed to recover development costs through its lackluster sales. The way they implemented the dangerous weather system was a novel feature for sure, and there was plenty of fun to be had with the series’ staple of zipping around with a grappling hook and blowing things up, but it just didn’t appeal to as many gamers as previous titles in the series.
Likely due to the commercial failure of Just Cause 4, in 2023 Square Enix canceled the development of Just Cause Mobile, probably only a few months after the supposed cancellation of Just Cause 5. The developer’s LinkedIn profile was the “Vehicles Feature Team Lead working on Just Cause 5”, but on their profile is a note that indicates that the game is “now canceled”. Upon further inspection of their profile, we found that this developer was working at Sumo Digital between July of 2021 and July of 2023, meaning that it’s fair to assume the game was canned nearly two years before this discovery and was never made public.
About three years ago, Square Enix confirmed in a financial update that the new project was being worked on piece by piece, but it would seem that they either couldn’t justify the expenses for another potential poorly received profit-loss. Shareholders don’t like losing money on projects they don’t believe in and neither do executives, so the most probable case is that the game just wasn’t projected to make the money back that it was going to cost the developers to create it.
Unfortunately, without an official announcement all we can do is speculate at the reasons why things fell apart as they did, and fans of the series can hope that maybe one day they will try and reinvigorate hype by releasing some remakes or remasters like so many other studios have and perhaps then we’ll see a sequel. There’s also a Just Cause movie in the works, so perhaps if that is well executed then the series’ popularity will rise again and spark demand for a new entry in the game series.
Are you hopeful for a return to the series? Are you interested in the upcoming movie? Do you think the series is dead and gone? Let us know what you think over on the Discord.
