Prior to the 2025 Xbox Games Showcase, we pondered the thought of Avalanche Studios' Contraband showing up again after a four-year hiatus - and while that didn't turn out to be the case, the project does seem alive and well within Microsoft's games pipeline.
As spotted by Tech4Gamers, the Swedish developer has posted a new Contraband job listing within the last week. The team is hiring a 'Product Lead' for the "upcoming AAA co-op open world action game" - and it sounds like Xbox and Avalanche have big plans for this release to live on well into the future.
Effectively, this job role is for someone to lead post-launch support on Contraband. In fact, the listing goes as far as straight up calling the title a "Live Service" - with the developer seeking someone who will "define and drive the product strategy for the Live service" and to "realise a high-fidelity Live plan for the next 6 months".
"As the Product Lead for Live, you are responsible for the player acquisition, engagement, retention and monetization strategy of our Live service. You will own the product vision for Live, optimize player value for our Live KPIs, manage a small team of Product Managers, and lead Marketing, Community and Analytics for the project.
You will also be a key stakeholder of the Development team on new Live game features, content, and platform capabilities, and represent Live towards our publisher. Your primary focus will be on prioritizing the development roadmap and ensuring all releases meet their targets."
This is all pretty interesting stuff, especially because news around this game has been so darn quiet since we learnt about its existence way back in 2021. The fact that the teams involved are starting to look at post-launch support should indicate the core game itself is moving along nicely - and hopefully we'll see it re-surface sometime soon.
This new job listing also backs up the theory that Contraband is safe from any Xbox cutbacks and layoffs. Right as Microsoft began announcing its recent job losses, the original Contraband trailer went offline, leading to speculation about the game's future. Apparently, the reason for its disappearance was due to licensing issues, which makes sense now that the team is still hiring for its upcoming release.