Avalanche’s “Pretty Cool Little Game” Revealed

Swedish developer Avalanche Studios announced their first downloadable title today: Renegade Ops. The team behind the Just Cause series teased the game a couple of weeks ago, describing it as “a pretty cool little game” for the PC, PSN, and XBLA platforms. It’s being built on the mighty Just Cause 2 game engine, Avalanche Engine 2.0.

Sega is collaborating with the studio to publish the title, which will be a top-down vehicle shooter with single-player, local multiplayer, and online multiplayer for up to four players. Avalanche calls the online portion “competitive co-op”: Everyone works together, but there’s still competition between players to obtain the highest score.

“A number of developers in the studio wanted to try developing a smaller digital project, so we gathered a team, built a new IP and SEGA gave us the opportunity to carry this out,” said Senior Producer Andreas Thorsen. “The IP is all about driving or flying around blowing stuff up while playing with your friends and that, to us, is a dream-project.”

Renegade Ops is not only Avalanche’s first outing into the digital market, but also Sega’s first new IP in the area, too. “It has been a great opportunity to work with a team as successful as Avalanche Studios,” said Sega Vice President of Digital Business Haruki Satomi.

GamePro will have more details in an upcoming issue of their magazine, but for now all we know is that the game comes out this autumn. A trailer is expected shortly, though Avalanche said that the game would be announced within one week of news-breaking, which was two weeks ago–so gauge that as you will. The sooner the better, please. Everyone loves crazy top-down shooters.