Just Cause Developer Co-Founder Discusses Canceled Iron Man Game

A new interview sheds light on Just Cause developer Avalanche Studio’s canceled open-world Iron Man game, which was rumored to be in the works a decade ago before getting axed in 2012. 

MinnMax’s Ben Hanson interviewed Christofer Sundberg, co-founder of Avalance, who has since left the studio to start a new company, Liquid Sword. During the interview, Hansen asked Sundberg about the fate of the Iron Man project, which Sundberg revealed as being in development for a year and a half to two years before being canceled due to what he describes as “company politics.”

Sundberg revealed that Disney requested Avalanche quickly expand its workforce to complete the game within a shorter development time. He refused to do so, explaining that it would be a huge strain for the studio.  

“It was, I was a mess by the end,” says Sundberg. “Shortening development time, increasing budgets. The team would need to add 70 to 80 people. I was the one responsible for finding a project, and the time to develop it would be much shorter. It would have broken the studio completely if we agreed to that.” 

He continues by saying, “At the end of a project, when the team is scaling down, that’s when you find [a] new project. One year was cut from my original development plan. I now had one more year to locate a project for a large development team, which would have been difficult. Hiring all these developers would have made my life miserable. So it was for the best” 

Sundberg claims that the game was unrelated to Marvel Cinematic Universe. Iron Man 3It was currently in production. He says the game would have allowed players to “just take off and fly anywhere” and that it had a big focus on melee combat where players could punch characters through walls using Iron Man’s repulsors. 

Given Hanson’s past, the clip provides a good closure. Game Informer, previously asked Sundberg about the project during an interview for our Just Cause 3 cover story in 2014. Sundberg admitted that an unannounced Marvel title was cancelled but did not confirm rumors that the game was Iron Man-related. We now know. 

Make sure you are paying attention MinnMax’s full interview with Christofer Sundberg here, where he discusses his new studio’s first project, creating the Mad Max game, and more.