It’s rare for game development studios to share information about canceled projects, even years after the fact. Business relationships, NDAs, and any number of other restricting factors can keep these secrets buried deep. That’s why it came as a surprise whenAvalanche Studiosco-founder Christofer Sundberg recently mentioned one of the company’s canceled projects offhandedly during an interview. It wasn’t just any project, either, but rather an open-worldIron Mangame from theJust Causedeveloper.In an interview with MinnMax, Sundberg says that theIron Manproject “would have been great.” He explained that theIron Manproject was in development for a “couple” of years, but that it was eventually canceled around 2012. That would place theIron Mangame’s development sometime around or after the development ofJust Cause 2, which was whenAvalanchereally embraced open-world game design and vertical movement using grappling.RELATED:Just Cause 5 Reportedly in DevelopmentNo explanation for why theIron Mangame was canceled was provided. While it’s implied that Disney and Marvel canceled the project, it’s also possible that there was a publisher involved that could also have decided to pull out. This was during a window where otherIron Mangames were also being released, withIron Man 2launching in 2008 andIron Man 3being released in 2013. Those two games were adaptations ofMarvel’sIron Manfilms, but there’s no indication Avalanche’s game was.
Fans of theJust Causefranchise, and Marvel as well, will understandably be disappointed to hear that such a game was in development and will never get released.Open-world gameshave only grown in popularity over the past decade. And the idea of flyingIron Manaround an open world, using his full arsenal to complete missions and progress through a Marvel superhero story, is very attractive. It could have beenMarvel’s Spider-Manbefore Insomniac ever started work on it.
Since the wrap-up of the licensedIron Mantrilogy,Iron Manhas been largely absent from standalone experience in the video game industry. The only game since isIron Man VR. He’s been frequently seen as a supporting character, though, like inMarvel’s AvengersandFortnite. That could change soon, however, as rumors are swirling about anew AAAIron Mangamein development at a recently opened Electronic Arts studio.
The cancelation of itsIron Manproject hasn’t slowed Avalanche Studios' momentum whatsoever.Iron Manwas canceled in 2012 and Avalanche launched five different games in 2015, includingMad MaxandJust Cause 3. It’s now working on anXbox-published game namedContraband, described as a co-op heist game with vehicular combat. Avalanche didn’t end up needingIron Manafter all.
