The co-founder and former chief creative officer of Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios has revealed during a chat with PCGamer that the company had a Crimson Desert-style title in the works known as AionGuard.
Described by the publication as a “fantasy open world fever dream,” the game saw players controlling a sorcerer-knight tasked with vanquishing evil from the land and was able to ride on a dragon. The DNA of the Just Cause franchise could be felt during the game, as players were able to liberate regions and overthrow strongholds to progress during the campaign.
“It was exactly that,” commented Christofer Sundberg, who co-founder Avalanche. “I haven’t played Crimson Desert enough, but we had everything that I’ve seen from Crimson Desert in the plans for that game. It was signed with a big publisher that has a lot of famous IPs… And then they just changed business direction again and wanted to focus on their existing IPs instead of new ones. They broke up with us on a text message, which I will never forgive them for.”
Unfortunately, AionGuard “just died out silently” after Avalanche opted to announce it on its own, which saw potential publishers “just shut the door.” The studio decided to the move forward with Just Cause as well as the Mad Max title.
Speaking back in November 2025 on X, Sundberg dashed any hopes of a Just Cause 5 seeing the light of day, saying a sequel would be a ‘no go’ as most of the original team are no longer around. His comments came following the cancellation of Contraband, which was pitched back in 2017. Sundberg currently works at Liquid Sword, a studio that he founded back in 2020, and is currently working on its debut IP despite suffering layoffs.
