[00:01] What I do best: cause chaos.
[00:14] ﻿Not too dissimilar from a B-tier action&nbsp; movie franchise, Avalanche Studios’s Just&nbsp;&nbsp; Cause series never rose far above its&nbsp; station. It earned varying degrees of&nbsp;&nbsp; success across four entries, thereby enjoying a&nbsp; comfortable status quo that many of its Double-A&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:29] counterparts would aspire to. However,&nbsp; such comforts came and went liberally,&nbsp;&nbsp; especially with the launch of a&nbsp; fourth installment in December 2018. &nbsp; The first Just Cause made an attempt at raising&nbsp; the stakes for the open-world genre popularized&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:44] by Grand Theft Auto III. Gorgeous vistas and&nbsp; a ‘go anywhere and do anything’ mantra meshed&nbsp;&nbsp; perfectly with Avalanche’s goal of providing&nbsp; players with tools to instigate chaos as they&nbsp;&nbsp; saw fit. But Just Cause's stunning environments&nbsp; and freeform gameplay could only pull so much&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:00] weight in a digital world that felt as unpolished&nbsp; as it played. Great strides were taken to improve&nbsp;&nbsp; upon the core mechanics in subsequent outings,&nbsp; which Avalanche realized rested squarely on the&nbsp;&nbsp; back of the havoc players could unleash with&nbsp; explosions, vehicles, high-powered weapons,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:16] and the constantly evolving grappling hook.&nbsp; Some would argue it was never enough. &nbsp; yet Just Cause 2 swung onto store shelves and&nbsp; sold like hotcakes in 2010. Unfortunately,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:31] sales tapered off from that point forward.&nbsp; Nonetheless, the development crew never wavered,&nbsp;&nbsp; pushing the envelope in terms of its technical&nbsp; prowess at every turn. But with Just Cause 4&nbsp;&nbsp; performing below expectations, franchise faithful&nbsp; were left to ponder whether protagonist Rico&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:47] Rodriguez had many more adventures ahead of him. This is the rise and fall of Just Cause. &nbsp;
[02:20] Frustrated by the thought that their bosses&nbsp; at Paradox Interactive prioritized money over&nbsp;&nbsp; creating games, developers Linus Blomberg and&nbsp; Christofer Sundberg left the Europa Universalis&nbsp;&nbsp; team and founded Rock Solid Studios in&nbsp; 2001. The Stockholm headquartered outfit&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:36] quickly inked a deal with Vivendi Universal&nbsp; to produce a tie-in game based on Tremors,&nbsp;&nbsp; the comedy-horror film franchise and TV series.&nbsp;&nbsp; Rock Solid entered production on the tie-in during&nbsp; the spring of 2002, then unveiled the project&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:49] that August with plans to eventually release it&nbsp; across PC, GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. &nbsp; Despite licensing IP for its market&nbsp; debut, the studio built many software&nbsp;&nbsp; tools from scratch by crafting a proprietary&nbsp; RRSTech graphics engine to power the unnamed&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:06] Tremors adventure. The technology most notably&nbsp; boasted an advanced geometry system for detailed&nbsp;&nbsp; landscapes and smooth transitions into indoor&nbsp; environments, which garnered the attention of&nbsp;&nbsp; Codemasters who licensed the engine for&nbsp; its canceled MMORPG, Dragon Empires. &nbsp;
[03:21] Amid all this excitement were rumblings that&nbsp; Enclave developer Starbreeze Studios had expansion&nbsp;&nbsp; ambitions involving the acquisition of Rock Solid.&nbsp; Starbreeze ultimately breached the acquisition&nbsp;&nbsp; agreement, allowing the deal to fall apart and,&nbsp; thus, thrusting both companies into bankruptcy.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:36] The failed merger resulted in financial ruin&nbsp; for the Blomberg and Sundberg-founded firm;&nbsp;&nbsp; worst still, shortly after the Starbreeze&nbsp; deal went cold, Vivendi pulled the plug&nbsp;&nbsp; on Tremors and left Rock Solid with no&nbsp; choice but to permanently close up shop.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:50] Sundberg later admitted in a Game Informer&nbsp; sit-down that their biggest mistake with the&nbsp;&nbsp; first development house was in “trusting the wrong&nbsp; people.” But with so much more to give, the pair&nbsp;&nbsp; started anew by founding Avalanche Studios several&nbsp; months after Rock Solid’s sudden shuttering. &nbsp;
[04:17] Blomberg and Sundberg established Avalanche&nbsp; Studios in 2003 on the heels of Rock Solid’s&nbsp;&nbsp; collapse. Despite having only a handful of&nbsp; other developers on board, work on what would&nbsp;&nbsp; later become the Avalanche Engine kicked into&nbsp; high gear early on. The patented game engine&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:32] spawned from technology Blomberg had spent years&nbsp; iterating upon, technology tailor-made for the&nbsp;&nbsp; sandbox adventures the team dreamed of creating.&nbsp; They described as an “advanced landscape engine”&nbsp;&nbsp; capable of rendering huge settings that&nbsp; showcased everything from small insects to&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:47] volumetric clouds. An intricate weather system&nbsp; targeting realistic and moody settings further&nbsp;&nbsp; facilitated the path towards an open-ended opus. Speaking with Game Informer, Avalanche’s founding&nbsp;&nbsp; members insisted their interest in sandbox games&nbsp; predated the meteoric rise of Rockstar’s Grand&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:02] Theft Auto. Blomberg, in particular, mentioned&nbsp; the Frontier: Elite series when addressing a&nbsp;&nbsp; desire to build worlds that ventured far “beyond&nbsp; the boundaries of the physical hardware.” Such&nbsp;&nbsp; ambitions held firm even though no one on the&nbsp; crew had any experience with the then-burgeoning&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:17] open-world genre. Setting background limitations&nbsp; aside, the main goal for Avalanche’s future&nbsp;&nbsp; projects hinged on player freedom. Principle&nbsp; Designer Magnus Nedfors told Game Brain as much&nbsp;&nbsp; in a “Making of” interview, highlighting how,&nbsp; barring a few scripted sequences, the original&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:33] Just Cause aimed to break the mold of simply&nbsp; tasking players with following instructions. &nbsp; The developers looked to classic arcade games and&nbsp; sophisticated strategy titles for inspiration,&nbsp;&nbsp; but were mostly influenced by other forms&nbsp; of media—comics, action movies, and pulp&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:47] novels included. This amalgam of influences&nbsp; converged to inform the creation of Rico:&nbsp;&nbsp; Terror in the Tropics, the codename for an&nbsp; action adventure game wherein Mexican-born CIA&nbsp;&nbsp; Agent Rico Rodriguez infiltrated a South American&nbsp; dictatorship to overthrow the ruling despot of the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:03] fictional San Esperito. Later, Avalanche&nbsp; fittingly landed on the Just Cause title,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:23] based on a historical operation of the&nbsp; same name in which U.S. armed forces&nbsp;&nbsp; invaded Panama to remove President General&nbsp; Manuel Noriega from power in December 1989. &nbsp; Striking a deal with Eidos Interactive, the&nbsp; UK publisher behind Tomb Raider and Hitman,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:38] allowed for exponential studio growth. And&nbsp; the Just Cause creators needed as many hands&nbsp;&nbsp; on deck as possible to see their ambitious&nbsp; vision through to completion. Sundberg told&nbsp;&nbsp; IGN during E3 2005 that Avalanche’s overall&nbsp; vision centered on providing a realistic world&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:53] where users could creatively dismantle a regime&nbsp; with the help of nearly endless possibilities.&nbsp;&nbsp; Player freedom factored into every facet of the&nbsp; open-ended experience as a result, from completing&nbsp;&nbsp; missions and traversing the island to performing&nbsp; stunts using land, sea, and air-based vehicles. &nbsp;
[07:10] Vehicles and weaponry weren’t the only tools&nbsp; designed for navigating San Esperito’s various&nbsp;&nbsp; obstacles. Midway through production,&nbsp; the developers brought Rico’s now-iconic&nbsp;&nbsp; grappling hook into the fray, mostly in hopes&nbsp; of facilitating the use of parachute mechanics&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:23] that were fun but not widely practical&nbsp; for the minute-to-minute action. &nbsp; Nedfors couldn’t recall the grappling hook’s&nbsp; inception during the Game Brain discussion,&nbsp;&nbsp; yet remembered it evolved from one developer&nbsp; mapping out the idea before building an in-game&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:37] prototype. Rendering the wire and figuring&nbsp; out other intricate details such as slack&nbsp;&nbsp; in the line presented quite the challenge. But&nbsp; outside of balancing technical specifications,&nbsp;&nbsp; Avalanche didn’t spend much time exploring&nbsp; the grappling system’s full potential,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:51] due in no small part to the mechanic entering&nbsp; the fold so deep into development. Little did&nbsp;&nbsp; developers know, it would later grow into&nbsp; a key touchstone for the franchise. &nbsp;
[08:21] In October 2004, Eidos Interactive advertized&nbsp; plans to publish Just Cause in 2005 for PC,&nbsp;&nbsp; PS2, and the original Xbox. The Head of European&nbsp; External Development at Eidos, Martin Alltimes,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:35] expressed confidence in the partnership&nbsp; yielding a great game. To the publisher,&nbsp;&nbsp; Avalanche seemed a good fit for its future&nbsp; slate of original content; the public&nbsp;&nbsp; wouldn’t learn why for several more months. The first details about the open-world project&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:50] circulated at E3 2005, during which time the&nbsp; companies premiered a tech demo showcasing&nbsp;&nbsp; forest landscapes, city environments, vehicular&nbsp; travel, and the day-night cycle. Its promising&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:02] E3 showing aside, Just Cause wasn’t ready&nbsp; for its previously scheduled 2005 release&nbsp;&nbsp; window. Eidos announced a delay later that year&nbsp; while reporting a six-month loss of $51 million,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:15] which soon thereafter contributed to the&nbsp; company’s stock hitting a record low. &nbsp; Avalanche stayed out of the public eye until&nbsp; early 2006, when word of Just Cause’s next-gen&nbsp;&nbsp; version on Xbox 360 hit the airwaves. Slated to&nbsp; launch alongside its PC and PS2 counterparts,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:31] the 360 iteration promised “something&nbsp; really special,” according to studio&nbsp;&nbsp; co-founder Christofer Sundberg; however,&nbsp; the added next-gen benefits merely provided&nbsp;&nbsp; enhanced graphics and Achievements.&nbsp; Irrespective of their platform of choice,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:45] not many were impressed by Just Cause as whole. The game shipped in September 2006 after roughly&nbsp;&nbsp; three years of production, inviting players&nbsp; to assume the role of CIA black ops agent&nbsp;&nbsp; Rico Rodriguez as he dismantled a fictional&nbsp; South American regime suspected of stockpiling&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:02] weapons of mass destruction. Avalanche’s&nbsp; engine earned praise for rendering a vast&nbsp;&nbsp; open world accentuated by an impressive day-night&nbsp; cycle and plenty of exciting ways to roam. Yet,&nbsp;&nbsp; middling reviews and tepid player reception&nbsp; showed few could ignore the emptiness of the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:17] sandbox. Its lacking visuals and subpar animations&nbsp; weren’t worthy of applause, either. Add to that&nbsp;&nbsp; the repetitive missions and Just Cause’s first&nbsp; outing felt bereft of polish above all else. &nbsp;
[10:30] Still, it would eventually enjoy lifetime&nbsp; sales of a reported 1.1 million copies,&nbsp;&nbsp; its debut performing well enough to&nbsp; secure a sequel. And with that sequel,&nbsp;&nbsp; Avalanche Studios finally understood how Just&nbsp; Cause could differentiate itself in a market&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:45] brimming with free-roaming action titles. Avalanche began brainstorming ideas for Just Cause&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:13] 2 not long after deploying the original, fully&nbsp; aware of the nascent franchise’s unfulfilled&nbsp;&nbsp; potential. Taking the widespread criticism into&nbsp; account, the crew outlined the trouble spots and,&nbsp;&nbsp; in so doing, identified three key areas&nbsp; of improvement. Lead Game Designer Peter&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:28] Johansson detailed all three during an interview&nbsp; with VideoGamer.com, telling the publication&nbsp;&nbsp; that an exorbitant amount of time went into&nbsp; Rico’s new stunts, specifically in figuring&nbsp;&nbsp; out ways to integrate them into regular in-game&nbsp; actions. Johansson noted that while the first&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:43] outing featured a decent helping of over-the-top&nbsp; tricks, most users ignored such exploits because&nbsp;&nbsp; they never felt necessary. Permanently binding&nbsp; the grappling hook to a dedicated button standing&nbsp;&nbsp; in for Rico’s left arm movement supplied one&nbsp; resolution to the stunts problem in question. &nbsp;
[11:59] The enhanced grappling hook along with&nbsp; an overhauled parachute mechanic, thus,&nbsp;&nbsp; became the former CIA agent’s closest allies.&nbsp; Arguably, this notion was best realized with&nbsp;&nbsp; the so-called Slingshot maneuver, which could&nbsp; be activated by hooking Rico onto an object,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:12] reeling him in, then opening the parachute for&nbsp; a boost that let the character seamlessly glide&nbsp;&nbsp; through the air. Avalanche similarly inserted&nbsp; this level of control into Just Cause 2’s&nbsp;&nbsp; car-surfing stunts, tuning the movement so that&nbsp; shifting between positions atop moving vehicles&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:28] enabled offensive and defensive maneuvers&nbsp; during gunfights. As a result, car chases&nbsp;&nbsp; gained a dimension of complexity that ventured far&nbsp; beyond the standard and stale mounted-gun fare. &nbsp; Refining combat occupied the second area of focus.&nbsp; The studio placed special emphasis on ensuring&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:45] every enemy encounter felt “challenging&nbsp; and tactical,” a feat accomplished with&nbsp;&nbsp; an all-new aiming system and revamped AI.&nbsp; While Just Cause included lock-on aiming,&nbsp;&nbsp; its successor benefited from free-aim mechanics.&nbsp; The developers approached free-aiming with two&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:00] objectives in mind—maintaining the&nbsp; fast-paced action and adhering to&nbsp;&nbsp; simplicity. These parameters begat a hybrid&nbsp; system, whereby users controlled the weapon’s&nbsp;&nbsp; crosshairs until a bit of assistance kicked in&nbsp; whenever the reticle drew close to the target. &nbsp;
[13:15] Understandably, refining enemy AI for the&nbsp; sequel required more of a developmental&nbsp;&nbsp; effort. As opposed to building upon their original&nbsp; work, Avalanche rewrote the AI and based it on a&nbsp;&nbsp; “sophisticated planning system” that supplied&nbsp; Rico’s adversaries with a host of new tricks.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:29] Just Cause 2 foes could, in turn, use their&nbsp; environment strategically, call for backup,&nbsp;&nbsp; and protect important objects and installations.&nbsp; The AI advancements covered combat encounters as&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:41] fire off shots with greater accuracy, and force&nbsp; players into evasive or cover-based maneuvers. &nbsp; And it all facilitated the Adaptive Difficulty&nbsp; System. Because of its non-linearity,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:56] the Just Cause follow-up featured&nbsp; a difficulty framework capable of&nbsp;&nbsp; gradually scaling in accordance with a player’s&nbsp; actions throughout the game. Late-game missions,&nbsp;&nbsp; for example, included a heightened security&nbsp; presence because the government battling&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:08] Rico had to adapt to the chaos he&nbsp; unleashed in previous missions. &nbsp; The structure and size of the open world&nbsp; constituted the final pillar of improvement.&nbsp;&nbsp; Rico’s debut adventure strung together missions&nbsp; in linear fashion, with lots of ground to cover&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:22] between each objective and not much to&nbsp; do while making the trip. To address this&nbsp;&nbsp; uniquely open-world issue, developers removed the&nbsp; disconnect between the main story content and side&nbsp;&nbsp; activities by ensuring every task drove the game&nbsp; forward. Side quests such as stronghold takeovers&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:38] and random free-roaming events like disrupting&nbsp; pipelines all contributed to Rico’s efforts of&nbsp;&nbsp; destabilizing a de facto dictatorship. Avalanche&nbsp; banked on this marriage between story and side&nbsp;&nbsp; quests guaranteeing that users never roamed too&nbsp; far before finding interesting activities. &nbsp;
[14:57] Just Cause’s creators set the second entry several&nbsp; years after the happenings in San Esperito.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[15:13] On hiatus from the Agency, Rico Rodriguez had&nbsp; taken a South American vacation cut short by&nbsp;&nbsp; his old partner convincing him to accept one&nbsp; final job—an objective that involved tracking&nbsp;&nbsp; down and possibly eliminating his former mentor,&nbsp; Tom Sheldon. But the premise of Rico pursuing a&nbsp;&nbsp;
[15:30] suspected rogue agent played second fiddle to the&nbsp; action-packed gameplay and massive open world. &nbsp; The fictional island chain of Panau&nbsp; served as Sheldon’s refuge of choice,&nbsp;&nbsp; its topography primarily influenced by Hawaii&nbsp; and New Zealand. Avalanche pulled inspiration&nbsp;&nbsp;
[15:45] from the varied climate zones that comprised both&nbsp; locales; as such, Panau included biomes ranging&nbsp;&nbsp; from sandy beaches, jungles, and snowcapped&nbsp; mountains to deserts and urban environments.&nbsp;&nbsp; Just Cause 2’s setting additionally&nbsp; created a melting pot of Asian cultures,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[16:00] predominantly borrowing from Malay culture while&nbsp; also tipping a hat to traditions across China,&nbsp;&nbsp; Japan, and Thailand. The studio accomplished this&nbsp; much and more courtesy of Avalanche Engine 2.0,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[16:12] an advanced version of the old engine no&nbsp; longer hindered by the restrictions of&nbsp;&nbsp; sixth-generation hardware. Higher resolution&nbsp; textures, upgraded destructibility, detailed&nbsp;&nbsp; characters, and a brand-new animation system&nbsp; were all powered by the advanced technology. &nbsp;
[16:27] But even with remarkable tools at its disposal,&nbsp; the crew faced challenges. Magnus Nedfors,&nbsp;&nbsp; Game Director on Just Cause 2, divulged in a&nbsp; GameZone interview that supporting free-roam&nbsp;&nbsp; experiences across a 400 square mile map densely&nbsp; populated with activities proved particularly&nbsp;&nbsp;
[16:43] difficult. Playtesting only added to the grind&nbsp; since no one player engaged with the world in&nbsp;&nbsp; the same manner as their counterparts. Factoring&nbsp; in hundreds of activities designed to facilitate&nbsp;&nbsp; Just Cause’s theme of instigating chaos only&nbsp; exacerbated the playtesting-related strains. &nbsp;
[16:58] The creative process that fueled the project’s&nbsp; production didn’t help, either. As Nedfors put it,&nbsp;&nbsp; the team preferred ironing out the details&nbsp; as production moved along, complicating the&nbsp;&nbsp; day-to-day for producers who preferred when plans&nbsp; were mapped out in advance. Features such as the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[17:13] grappling hook received constant iteration as a&nbsp; consequence, yet few would argue with the results.&nbsp;&nbsp; The commercial and critical success of the sequel&nbsp; showed Avalanche’s efforts paid dividends. &nbsp;
[17:52] Eidos and Avalanche Studios formally&nbsp; revealed Just Cause 2 in January 2008,&nbsp;&nbsp; showcasing only a handful of screenshots at&nbsp; the time but promising a 2008 launch across PC,&nbsp;&nbsp; PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. The announcement’s&nbsp; accompanying press release described the new&nbsp;&nbsp;
[18:09] interactive adventure as an “over-the-top&nbsp; Hollywood blockbuster of a video game;”&nbsp;&nbsp; the public would’t get to see it in&nbsp; action for quite some time, though. &nbsp; For reasons unknown, Eidos postponed Just Cause’s&nbsp; sophomore effort to a nebulous 2009 launch window.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[18:23] The project later slipped into March 2010, the&nbsp; details of its second delay similarly shrouded&nbsp;&nbsp; in mystery. A significant corporate shakeup&nbsp; behind-the-scenes may have contributed to the&nbsp;&nbsp; prolonged development period in some capacity.&nbsp; In March 2009, Eidos Interactive’s shareholders&nbsp;&nbsp;
[18:40] accepted Square Enix’s bid to purchase the&nbsp; British publisher for approximately $120&nbsp;&nbsp; million USD, a deal that included Deus&nbsp; Ex, Hitman, and Tomb Raider assets. &nbsp; Just Cause proved itself to be yet another&nbsp; valuable property the following year when&nbsp;&nbsp;
[18:56] the sequel’s free demo generated an impressive&nbsp; two million downloads on PlayStation Network,&nbsp;&nbsp; Steam, and Xbox Live. And despite arriving in the&nbsp; same month as Final Fantasy XIII and God of War 3,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[19:08] the full release of Just Cause 2 also fared&nbsp; incredibly well on the sales charts. &nbsp; Rico’s second outing drew praise as one of the&nbsp; most exciting open-world games in years. Critics&nbsp;&nbsp; labeled it a must-play for adrenaline&nbsp; junkies, thanks to the huge open world,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[19:22] ridiculous stunts, intense destructibility,&nbsp; and, of course, the game-changing link between&nbsp;&nbsp; the grappling hook and parachute which made&nbsp; maneuverability an exciting adventure in its&nbsp;&nbsp; own right. Panau provided the perfect sandbox,&nbsp; too, featuring countless activities that waded&nbsp;&nbsp;
[19:37] into the realm of redundancy but still gave&nbsp; players a reason to regularly dive back in—be&nbsp;&nbsp; it in short bursts or longer play sessions. Just Cause 2 boasted a few blemishes as well,&nbsp;&nbsp; shipping with a number of annoying hiccups&nbsp; that hampered the experience. For many,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[19:53] the infrequent checkpoint system represented&nbsp; the biggest stumbling block, considering how&nbsp;&nbsp; longer missions threw exceedingly difficult&nbsp; challenges at the player with no room for grace&nbsp;&nbsp; in the save game department. The targeting system&nbsp; similarly marched to the beat of dysfunction,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[20:06] as it turned the franchise’s already&nbsp; troublesome gunplay into a tedious affair. &nbsp; Numerous technical woes, the occasional&nbsp; frustrating mission, and a campaign that hardly&nbsp;&nbsp; held player interest underscored the problem&nbsp; areas. Yet, these flaws were easily ignored&nbsp;&nbsp;
[20:22] given the myriad other victories. And those&nbsp; in-game victories translated to commercial wins&nbsp;&nbsp; that saw Just Cause 2 exceed sales expectations&nbsp; and move over six million copies in four years.&nbsp;&nbsp; The Stockholm outfit built from the ashes of&nbsp; Rock Solid Studios finally had a bonafide hit. &nbsp;
[20:52] Longevity factored heavily into Just Cause 2’s&nbsp; impressive sales figures, with it thriving based&nbsp;&nbsp; on two noteworthy elements—the PS3 version’s&nbsp; YouTube upload feature and the PC modding&nbsp;&nbsp;
[21:04] community. The most popular videos uploaded by&nbsp; PS3 players topped 12 million views; meanwhile,&nbsp;&nbsp; modders implemented multiplayer features on PC&nbsp; encouraging Avalanche to release an official&nbsp;&nbsp; multiplayer mod in late 2013. Naturally,&nbsp; the creative team felt it prudent to further&nbsp;&nbsp;
[21:20] explore community features when crafting&nbsp; Rico’s next dictator-dismantling endeavor,&nbsp;&nbsp; but such an expansion wouldn’t happen under the&nbsp; stewardship of the Stockholm-based firm. While the&nbsp;&nbsp; group behind Just Cause 1 and 2 directed its gaze&nbsp; towards the apocalyptic Mad Max universe, a new&nbsp;&nbsp;
[21:37] satellite studio took the reins on Rico’s return. Former Atari executive David Grijns left the&nbsp;&nbsp; company in 2010, harboring dreams of establishing&nbsp; a game studio in his hometown of New York City.&nbsp;&nbsp; Grijns chiefly envisioned a company that would&nbsp; help turn the metropolis into a legitimate place&nbsp;&nbsp;
[21:53] for growing the gaming business. The industry&nbsp; veteran’s old friend, Christofer Sundberg,&nbsp;&nbsp; assisted in bringing his vision to fruition. In&nbsp; November 2011, Avalanche announced the founding&nbsp;&nbsp; of its Manhattan arm where Co-Founder&nbsp; David Grijns served as General Manager. &nbsp;
[22:07] Speaking with Game Informer for the December 2014&nbsp; cover story, Sundberg explained that he cast his&nbsp;&nbsp; mind toward a third Just Cause game as soon as&nbsp; production wrapped on the sequel. But the Chief&nbsp;&nbsp; Creative Officer wanted a fresh perspective&nbsp; and, thus, after months of brainstorming,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[22:22] the Manhattan office entered pre-production&nbsp; on what would become Just Cause 3. The goal&nbsp;&nbsp; from the start was to amplify and enhance&nbsp; all of the property’s disparate parts,&nbsp;&nbsp; from world density and core mechanics&nbsp; to destructive capabilities and Rico’s&nbsp;&nbsp;
[22:36] personality. Just Cause 3 would usher in an&nbsp; evolutionary shift for the brand, one made&nbsp;&nbsp; possible by the Manhattan team’s decision to bring&nbsp; the protagonist's character arc full circle. &nbsp; The 2006 title painted somewhat of a goofy image&nbsp; for the hero; he gained a sleeker edge for the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[22:52] 2010 installment, taking on a persona consistent&nbsp; with the Scorpion nickname mercenaries used to&nbsp;&nbsp; identify him. Even then, Sundberg admitted the&nbsp; worlds of Just Cause’s earlier outings constituted&nbsp;&nbsp; the strongest characters, meaning Rico had long&nbsp; been due for a deeper personality. This notion&nbsp;&nbsp;
[23:08] manifested in the creation of Medici, a fictional&nbsp; Mediterranean republic the protagonist escaped&nbsp;&nbsp; amid a military coup during his adolescence.&nbsp; The loss of his parents during the takeover&nbsp;&nbsp; led by General Di Ravello marked the catalyst that&nbsp; led to his CIA recruitment, thereby starting the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[23:23] character on a path of dismantling dictators the&nbsp; world over. At the behest of childhood friends,&nbsp;&nbsp; that path pulled Rico back into Medici’s&nbsp; borders where his knack for toppling&nbsp;&nbsp; oppressive regimes presented him an opportunity&nbsp; to liberate his homeland from Di Ravello. &nbsp;
[24:02] A Mediterranean-esque locale seemed ideal for&nbsp; examining both Rico’s past and the new technical&nbsp;&nbsp; advancements rendered possible by the Avalanche’s&nbsp; upgraded engine. Select Assassin’s Creed entries&nbsp;&nbsp; aside, the Mediterranean boasted a lot of untapped&nbsp; potential in gaming; thus, the developers borrowed&nbsp;&nbsp;
[24:19] from the sights and topography of Sicily, Malta,&nbsp; Greece, and Monaco. Each location provided a guide&nbsp;&nbsp; for mapping out an world packed with more terrain,&nbsp; denser areas, and air-friendly navigational&nbsp;&nbsp; possibilities, all informed by the Manhattan&nbsp; office’s vision of pushing for verticality. &nbsp;
[24:36] Avalanche’s versatile terrain system constituted&nbsp; the most significant improvement to its&nbsp;&nbsp; engine between the seventh and eighth-console&nbsp; generations. As such, though Medici bordered on&nbsp;&nbsp; the same size as Panau, it featured small islands,&nbsp; mammoth mountains, and cities spread across five&nbsp;&nbsp;
[24:51] biomes, including coastal areas, pastoral fields&nbsp; blooming with flowers, scrublands, forested zones,&nbsp;&nbsp; and ice-capped mountains. Better yet, the new&nbsp; heightmap system sidestepped merely emphasizing a&nbsp;&nbsp;
[25:04] top layer of terrain to instead permit volumetric&nbsp; terrain capable of realizing 3D formations.&nbsp;&nbsp; Suddenly, Rico’s navigational prowess extended&nbsp; to caves, overhangs, and tunnels. The newly&nbsp;&nbsp;
[25:16] implemented verticality also engendered the advent&nbsp; of another vehicle for air travel—the wingsuit. &nbsp; Game Director Roland Lesterlin pitched wingsuit&nbsp; mechanics early in development. According to&nbsp;&nbsp; Lead Player Mechanics Designer Joe Ishikura, the&nbsp; idea worked theoretically, yet its first iteration&nbsp;&nbsp;
[25:33] crashed and burned, failing to befit the action of&nbsp; Just Cause 3. Ishikura said that in its infancy,&nbsp;&nbsp; activating the wingsuit with the press of a&nbsp; button felt like sudden transportation into a&nbsp;&nbsp; different game altogether. Several rounds of&nbsp; trial and error supported the mastery of the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[25:48] feature’s final glider-like controls, opening the&nbsp; door for a second slingshot grapple maneuver. &nbsp; The boosted Avalanche Engine's approach&nbsp; to destruction similarly elevated the&nbsp;&nbsp; core tenets of Just Cause gameplay,&nbsp; especially since explosions had long&nbsp;&nbsp;
[26:02] become an integral part of the experience.&nbsp; Tearing down statues and blowing enemy&nbsp;&nbsp; airplanes out of the sky produced detailed&nbsp; visual feedback, but the upgraded scale of&nbsp;&nbsp; destructibility benefited the action&nbsp; in far grander fashion. For instance,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[26:15] players chased across a bridge by an enemy convoy&nbsp; could blow up the bridge with the right tools,&nbsp;&nbsp; then escape while leaving their pursuers&nbsp; behind in the literal dust and rubble. &nbsp; Reactivity played its own part in Avalanche’s&nbsp; vision of a living, breathing open world,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[26:29] such that it extended to how Rico responded&nbsp; to player inputs and how civilian NPCs reacted&nbsp;&nbsp; towards the protagonist’s behavior. Lesterlin&nbsp; noted in a VentureBeat interview that a reactive&nbsp;&nbsp; world meant players would never feel the need&nbsp; to halt their movements—each button press was&nbsp;&nbsp;
[26:44] intended to elicit some kind of reaction. As for&nbsp; the game world itself, reactivity evolved in a&nbsp;&nbsp; way that ensured Rico couldn’t wingsuit across&nbsp; a field without farmers down below pausing to&nbsp;&nbsp; catch sight of what soared above them. Avalanche had taken the simplicity of the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[26:59] original Just Cause and dialed it up to 11. Yet,&nbsp; saving space for the growth of Rico and its world&nbsp;&nbsp; design chops didn’t prevent the company’s&nbsp; Manhattan firm from staying true to the zany&nbsp;&nbsp; tone of the franchise. Rico’s tragic backstory&nbsp; may have been the backbone of the third game,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[27:13] but developers insisted Just Cause 3 in no way&nbsp; constituted a story-driven romp. The overarching&nbsp;&nbsp; narrative represented a tool for teaching players&nbsp; the rules and tricks embedded in the world around&nbsp;&nbsp; them. Lesterlin told Game Informer the team&nbsp; hoped users would learn about the likes of&nbsp;&nbsp;
[27:29] duel-tethering during the campaign, then&nbsp; feel motivated to test the same mechanic&nbsp;&nbsp; by duel-tethering something outrageous along&nbsp; the lines of a helicopter and ground vehicle. &nbsp; A brand-new upgrade system supplemented&nbsp; the over-the-top action, inspired by the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[27:42] dedicated modding community on PC that contributed&nbsp; so significantly to the sequel’s longevity. Simply&nbsp;&nbsp; referred to as mods, the upgrades weren’t aimed&nbsp; at enhancing Rico, per se—as Avalanche saw it,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[27:54] the action hero had already become plenty&nbsp; powerful. Players would instead start the&nbsp;&nbsp; game with a number of preexisting abilities,&nbsp; then build upon those skills with mod unlocks.&nbsp;&nbsp; Interestingly, the unlocks were tied to a range&nbsp; of challenges; completing wingsuit challenges&nbsp;&nbsp;
[28:09] begat wingsuit mods, destruction-based&nbsp; tasks awarded grenade mods and so on. &nbsp; All in all, this approach offered player choice&nbsp; beyond that of past Just Cause installments,&nbsp;&nbsp; leaving developers certain they’d produced&nbsp; the ultimate sandbox—a “gamer’s game”&nbsp;&nbsp;
[28:25] as Lesterlin once described it. If the&nbsp; 2010 title had raised the IP’s profile,&nbsp;&nbsp; its successor seemed poised to reach greater&nbsp; heights. Many would argue it came up short. &nbsp;
[28:55] Barring a brief tease, Just Cause 3 entered&nbsp; the limelight in November 2014 when Avalanche&nbsp;&nbsp; partnered with Game Informer to announce the&nbsp; magazine’s December cover reveal. Such news&nbsp;&nbsp; combined with the Stockholm office’s planned&nbsp; rollout of Mad Max suggested 2015 would be&nbsp;&nbsp;
[29:12] the company’s “biggest year since inception.”&nbsp; The team especially drove home that point upon&nbsp;&nbsp; debuting gameplay footage of Just Cause 3 during&nbsp; Square Enix’s E3 2015 presentation. Viewers were&nbsp;&nbsp;
[29:24] in awe of the high-octane action and explosive&nbsp; fun. If nothing else, the Just Cause brand knew&nbsp;&nbsp; how to entice audiences with masterful showpieces.&nbsp; And the anticipation that blessed from the reveal&nbsp;&nbsp; held public interest through to the game’s&nbsp; December 2015 launch on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[29:41] But when compared to its universally beloved&nbsp; predecessor, the third release struck out. &nbsp; Rico Rodriguez’ Mediterranean-set mission was&nbsp; met with middling reception from critics and&nbsp;&nbsp; fans alike. There arguably existed no better&nbsp; sandbox on the market at the time. The tuned&nbsp;&nbsp;
[29:58] gameplay mechanics and genuine sense of freedom&nbsp; intersected to unleash picture perfect chaos,&nbsp;&nbsp; such that players could replicate their most&nbsp; bombastic Hollywood blockbuster dreams. It may&nbsp;&nbsp; not have hit the same standards of quality that&nbsp; other major 2015 titles such as Bloodborne and&nbsp;&nbsp;
[30:13] The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt set in place, yet&nbsp; crisp visuals and an almost unmatched fun&nbsp;&nbsp; factor compensated for several shortcomings. Still, the hiccups proved far too distracting.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[30:25] Repetitive missions often got in the way of the&nbsp; thrill ride, for example, particularly when it&nbsp;&nbsp; came to the much-loathed escort objectives.&nbsp; Unintelligent friendly and enemy AI caused&nbsp;&nbsp; a fair few problems as well. Egregious bugs and&nbsp; mostly console-based frame rate issues added to&nbsp;&nbsp;
[30:42] the symphony of errors that revealed Just Cause&nbsp; 3 as an unpolished cut below its forerunner. &nbsp; Square Enix never disclosed concrete sales numbers&nbsp; for Just Cause 3, yet the publisher’s early 2016&nbsp;&nbsp;
[30:54] earnings report said its so-called “solid”&nbsp; performance, along with that of Rise of&nbsp;&nbsp; the Tomb Raider, helped boost revenue&nbsp; considerably. It evidently performed&nbsp;&nbsp; well enough to warrant Square Enix signing&nbsp; off on a fourth chapter in the saga. &nbsp;
[31:35] Not unlike other sequels, Just Cause 2 and 3&nbsp; fleshed out what had come before in terms of&nbsp;&nbsp; gameplay and world design. Avalanche Studios&nbsp; essentially relied on the same approach when&nbsp;&nbsp; crafting the fourth game, but deviated in ways&nbsp; that longtime fans may not have anticipated.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[31:50] Marketing speak for previous entries notably&nbsp; drilled home the notion that Just Cause by&nbsp;&nbsp; no means offered a story-driven experience. Studio Co-Founder Christofer Sundberg shared&nbsp;&nbsp; insight into why story played a secondary or&nbsp; tertiary role in a series of tweets in 2013,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[32:06] wherein he questioned why games should focus on&nbsp; storytelling when the data proved that consumers&nbsp;&nbsp; didn’t care. Just Cause 2 provided one such&nbsp; data point, with the developer divulging that&nbsp;&nbsp; only 18 percent of players completed the second&nbsp; game’s campaign. Bearing those numbers in mind,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[32:22] Sundberg argued story-driven AAA games no longer&nbsp; made commercial sense, though the likes of The&nbsp;&nbsp; Last of Us were the exception. Evidently, this&nbsp; train of thought held firm throughout Just Cause&nbsp;&nbsp; 3’s production cycle. It changed by the time the&nbsp; 2018 installment entered development, however. &nbsp;
[32:39] Game Director Franchesco Antolini noted&nbsp; during an interview with Variety that,&nbsp;&nbsp; in terms of storytelling, Just Cause&nbsp; 4 marked Avalanche’s attempt at being&nbsp;&nbsp; “more plausible rather than campy.” The game&nbsp; itself still built on the sandbox gameplay and&nbsp;&nbsp;
[32:53] other core strengths of the franchise because&nbsp; developers knew what audiences wanted. Yet,&nbsp;&nbsp; they also tried their hand at delivering&nbsp; a relatively in-depth narrative, thereby&nbsp;&nbsp; allowing players interested in the story to deeply&nbsp; explore Rico Rodriguez and the new foe he faced. &nbsp;
[33:08] To a certain extent, then, the crew set out to&nbsp; deviate from the brand’s classic structure. The&nbsp;&nbsp; first step manifested in the formation of a&nbsp; “proper narrative team,” which devised the&nbsp;&nbsp; villainous Gabriela Morales and the mercenary&nbsp; outfit she ran, The Black Hand. For her part,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[33:23] Gabriela represented the perfect foil to&nbsp; Rico—his penchant for chaos matched against her&nbsp;&nbsp; orderliness; where he prioritized intuitiveness,&nbsp; she thrived on strategy. Avalanche wanted an&nbsp;&nbsp;
[33:35] antagonist who could competently challenge their&nbsp; leading man to approach obstacles differently,&nbsp;&nbsp; perhaps with more thoughtfulness.&nbsp; As a result, Gabriela’s Black Hand&nbsp;&nbsp; operation bore a lot in common with real-world&nbsp; Private Military Companies like Blackwater. &nbsp;
[33:49] The development team insisted, however, that Just&nbsp; Cause 4 featured an apolitical narrative—hence&nbsp;&nbsp; the creative decision to disguise militant enemies&nbsp; with face masks. When questioned by Variety about&nbsp;&nbsp; the ideals separating Rico’s mission from that&nbsp; of The Black Hand, Antolini said freedom sat at&nbsp;&nbsp;
[34:04] the center of the conflict. Rico aimed to relieve&nbsp; the fictional South American nation of Solís from&nbsp;&nbsp; its oppressor, Oscar Espinosa; meanwhile, the&nbsp; private army enforced Espinosa’s rule without&nbsp;&nbsp; oversight. According to the Game Director, not&nbsp; even the player’s actions inspiring a homegrown&nbsp;&nbsp;
[34:20] revolution wore the stench of politics-influenced&nbsp; storytelling. Ignoring the history behind the Just&nbsp;&nbsp; Cause name and the newer game’s stated goal of&nbsp; conveying a deeper story campaign, it seemed&nbsp;&nbsp; Avalanche had its sights set on marketing an&nbsp; experience focused squarely on pretty explosions.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[34:35] And once again, the studio reengineered&nbsp; its technology to pursue such ends. &nbsp;
[34:51] After spending years modifying the Avalanche&nbsp; Engine, the company shelved its old technology&nbsp;&nbsp; and started anew with the bespoke Apex Engine. As&nbsp; stated by Franchesco Antolini, Avalanche didn’t&nbsp;&nbsp;
[35:03] want the action series returning to market with&nbsp; the same troubles that plagued the 2015 entry;&nbsp;&nbsp; he particularly highlighted Just Cause 3’s&nbsp; console-specific issues as one motivating&nbsp;&nbsp; factor behind the overhaul. Engineers, thus,&nbsp; equipped Apex with a brand-new animation system,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[35:19] physics-based rendering, better HDR&nbsp; lighting, then-unrivaled draw distances,&nbsp;&nbsp; increased fidelity of destruction, and a trove&nbsp; of bells and whistles that facilitated Just Cause&nbsp;&nbsp; 4’s most daring feature—dynamic weather events. Impressively, the engine’s extreme weather system&nbsp;&nbsp;
[35:36] simulated tornadoes, blizzards, lighting storms,&nbsp; and sandstorms, none of which were scripted.&nbsp;&nbsp; Senior Game Designer Robert Meyer described the&nbsp; events as “real physicalized simulations in the&nbsp;&nbsp; world” during a late 2018 preview, noting that the&nbsp; weather-centric technology demanded the most team&nbsp;&nbsp;
[35:53] effort since it involved cooperation from all&nbsp; internal disciplines. Every detail had to work&nbsp;&nbsp; as players would expect. For instance, the sight&nbsp; of a tornado tearing across an airport wouldn’t&nbsp;&nbsp; alone sell a sense of realism; sitting airplanes&nbsp; needed to be sucked into the vortex’s orbit,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[36:08] then subsequently tossed around. Enemy forces&nbsp; were similarly designed to exhibit appropriate&nbsp;&nbsp; extreme weather behaviors. And balancing it&nbsp; all counted as a key part of the equation,&nbsp;&nbsp; otherwise the supposedly dynamic moments could’ve&nbsp; rendered the game unplayable and unpleasant. &nbsp;
[36:24] The open world naturally went hand-in-hand with&nbsp; the weather design baked into it. Rico found&nbsp;&nbsp; himself exploring Solís in Just Cause 4, the IP’s&nbsp; biggest playground. Beyond the map’s massive size,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[36:36] variety additionally played an integral&nbsp; role in world design—a response to the&nbsp;&nbsp; relative homogeneity that pervaded Just Cause 3’s&nbsp; Mediterranean-inspired setting. Solís contained&nbsp;&nbsp; four different biomes, including the harsh and&nbsp; Andes-like alpine environment, a rainforest,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[36:51] grasslands, and a desert locale. Each climate&nbsp; zone included an extra layer of diversity,&nbsp;&nbsp; designed in hopes of regularly conjuring&nbsp; up new discoveries for players. &nbsp; Story missions underwent an overhaul between&nbsp; games, too, marking what Robert Meyer called&nbsp;&nbsp;
[37:06] a “return to form in some respects.” The&nbsp; fourth title adopted Just Cause 2’s open&nbsp;&nbsp; mission structure, yet still fell in line with&nbsp; the deeper narrative. Following the first set&nbsp;&nbsp; of introductory objectives, then, users would&nbsp; start Operations, a series of missions revolving&nbsp;&nbsp;
[37:21] around each biome and extreme weather event.&nbsp; One biome-specific operation may have tasked&nbsp;&nbsp; Rico with unearthing the cause of tornadoes&nbsp; in the region. And the open-ended nature of&nbsp;&nbsp; even pausing the tornado arc to get a head start&nbsp; on, say, the sandstorm branch. In keeping with&nbsp;&nbsp;
[37:40] the theme of variety, Avalanche embraced&nbsp; this structure so players never felt forced&nbsp;&nbsp; to remain in one climate zone for too long. As was the custom for Just Cause, player choice&nbsp;&nbsp; came first; thus, the community’s influence never&nbsp; wavered. Many gadgets and vehicles were inspired&nbsp;&nbsp;
[37:56] by the gameplay footage fans shared online from&nbsp; previous installments. Avalanche’s dedication to&nbsp;&nbsp; providing a greater sense of freedom additionally&nbsp; engendered the advancement of the beloved&nbsp;&nbsp; grappling hook. In the third game, adding up to&nbsp; six grapple tethers came by means of progression;&nbsp;&nbsp;
[38:11] developers believed accessing all six right off&nbsp; the bat served as a good starting point for the&nbsp;&nbsp; fourth title. Grappling hook mods generated&nbsp; about twice as many tethers, which could be&nbsp;&nbsp; outfitted with retractors for sticking targets&nbsp; together, booster rockets, and air lifters that&nbsp;&nbsp;
[38:25] worked like the balloons in Metal Gear Solid 5. It appeared as though Avalanche left no stone&nbsp;&nbsp; unturned in its pursuit of elevating the&nbsp; marquee brand. While efforts of this kind&nbsp;&nbsp; had paid off handsomely in the past, Just&nbsp; Cause 4 ultimately sold below expectations. &nbsp;
[38:51] Just Cause 4 landed on PC, PS4, and Xbox One in&nbsp; December 2018, six months after its reveal during&nbsp;&nbsp; Microsoft’s E3 conference. The game’s quick&nbsp; arrival failed to garner much critical praise,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[39:04] evidenced by Metacritic scores whose averages&nbsp; sank lower than the 2006 debut. Explosive action,&nbsp;&nbsp; neat weather effects, and fresh customization&nbsp; tools offered only so much in a game that&nbsp;&nbsp;
[39:16] fans and reviewers felt employed none of these&nbsp; features to their fullest extent. Avalanche’s&nbsp;&nbsp; attempt at weaving a worthwhile tale didn’t stick&nbsp; the landing either, nor did the revised mission&nbsp;&nbsp; structure solve the issue of bland and redundant&nbsp; objectives. Performance hiccups and technical&nbsp;&nbsp;
[39:31] glitches compounded the myriad shortcomings,&nbsp; and presumably had an adverse effect on sales. &nbsp; Square Enix withheld specifics, but confirmed&nbsp; Just Cause 4’s sluggish start amid a February&nbsp;&nbsp; 2019 Q&amp;A session with investors. It sold&nbsp; below expectations, enough so that launch&nbsp;&nbsp;
[39:47] sales couldn’t offset development costs. The&nbsp; publisher further attributed its operating loss&nbsp;&nbsp; of 1.7 billion yen in the HD Games sub-segment&nbsp; to the fourth outing’s poor performance,&nbsp;&nbsp; adding that holiday sales of Shadow of the Tomb&nbsp; Raider and Dragon Quest Builders 2 “were also&nbsp;&nbsp;
[40:03] not enough to compensate for the shortfall of&nbsp; Just Cause 4.” Within three months of release,&nbsp;&nbsp; Square Enix launched the experience&nbsp; on Xbox Game Pass. Many interpreted&nbsp;&nbsp; this series of events as writing&nbsp; on the wall for Just Cause. &nbsp;
[40:17] And the cancellation of Just Cause Mobile probably&nbsp; won’t ease those concerns. Announced during the&nbsp;&nbsp; 2020 Game Awards, Just Cause Mobile was touted as&nbsp; a free-to-play shooter boasting a story campaign,&nbsp;&nbsp; 30-person competitive multiplayer, and&nbsp; four-player co-op. It promised four distinct&nbsp;&nbsp;
[40:34] game modes and movement mechanics found in&nbsp; the core games, including grappling hook,&nbsp;&nbsp; parachute, and wingsuit functionality. Originally&nbsp; slated for 2021, Square Enix delayed the iOS and&nbsp;&nbsp;
[40:46] Android title to 2022 because of complications&nbsp; stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic. A second&nbsp;&nbsp; delay pushed it beyond the 2022 window without&nbsp; explanation. Upon terminating development, the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[40:59] publisher removed Just Cause Mobile’s early access&nbsp; builds from digital storefronts on July 3, 2023. &nbsp; Just Cause 5 may wait in the wings, though.&nbsp; After unloading IP such as Tomb Raider,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[41:11] Deus Ex, and Legacy of Kane in a sale to Embracer&nbsp; Group, Square Enix held onto the Avalanche-created&nbsp;&nbsp; property. Company President Yosuke Matsuda stated&nbsp; in a May 2022 financial report that in addition&nbsp;&nbsp;
[41:23] to Just Cause remaining part of the Square&nbsp; Enix family, the publisher was also "at work&nbsp;&nbsp; developing a new title in the franchise.” What&nbsp; the eventual release may entail eludes the public;&nbsp;&nbsp; even Rico Rodriguez’s potential involvement&nbsp; remains unclear. Still, it seems that in spite&nbsp;&nbsp;
[41:39] of its pitfalls, Square Enix is not yet ready&nbsp; to sunset the blockbuster action series. &nbsp; Christofer Sundberg and other co-creators&nbsp; originally envisioned Just Cause as “a game&nbsp;&nbsp; where people could skydive onto the roof of a car&nbsp; and keep on going.” The basic concept morphed with&nbsp;&nbsp;
[41:55] each new iteration, evolving and leaving space&nbsp; for even grander scenarios. For some reason,&nbsp;&nbsp; the thrill-seeking charm of Just Cause lost its&nbsp; luster over time. The sandboxes grew larger and&nbsp;&nbsp; the action became increasingly more outlandish,&nbsp; yet these advancements seemingly buckled beneath&nbsp;&nbsp;
[42:10] the weight of stagnation in terms of storytelling,&nbsp; missions, and the lack of multiplayer support. In&nbsp;&nbsp; short, as gaming outgrew the standards established&nbsp; by generations past, Just Cause got left behind,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[42:23] only beginning to catch up a little too late.&nbsp; Should the series receive a new lease on life,&nbsp;&nbsp; it may take more than Rico’s explosion-happy&nbsp; antics to reel in audiences new and old.