Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios had a Crimson Desert-like game in the works but “every publisher just shut the door

Avalanche Studios, the developer behind the Just Cause franchise, had been working on a fantasy open-world game called AionGuard during the PS3 generation in the late 2000s. According to Christofer Sundberg, Avalanche’s former co-founder and chief creative officer, the dragon-riding fantasy game would have been remarkably similar to the recently successful Crimson Desert.

Sundberg revealed that AionGuard featured comparable gameplay elements and scope to what Pearl Abyss achieved with Crimson Desert, which has found significant commercial success since its recent release. However, the project never reached players due to publishing obstacles. Sundberg recalled that “every publisher just shut the door” on the project, preventing its development from continuing.

The discussion of the cancelled game has resurfaced following Crimson Desert’s breakthrough success and demonstrated player interest in sprawling open-world games. Sundberg’s comments suggest that had Avalanche secured a publisher willing to support AionGuard, the studio could have established itself as a major player in the fantasy open-world genre years before Crimson Desert’s 2026 arrival. The cancelled project represents a significant “what if” in gaming history—a game that, according to its creator, would have delivered a comparable experience to one of this year’s breakout successes, had it only found the right publishing partner.

Sources

• [Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios had a Crimson Desert-like game in the works but “every publisher just shut the door](https://www.eurogamer.net/just-cause-developer-avalanche-cancelled-game-aionguard)
• ‘We Had Everything from Crimson Desert’: Just Cause Dev Recalls Cancelled Fantasy Game
• Just Cause studio’s canned dragon-riding fantasy romp AionGuard “would have been Crimson Desert”, reckons former Avalanche creative head