Avalanche Almost Had Its Own Crimson Desert, Per Former CCO

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It’s easy to see why you might have forgotten about AionGuard, a game Avalanche Studios worked on for a long time before it was put on hold. Now, with the release of Crimson Desert, Christofer Sundberg – who used to be Chief Creative Officer and is currently working on Samson – discussed the similarities between the two games in an interview with PC Gamer.

He spoke sadly about the difficulties during the development of AionGuard, suggesting it could have been as successful as Crimson Desert, and even earlier. While he hasn’t played much of Crimson Desert, he believes AionGuard already had all the features seen in the newer game planned during its own development.

Back in its early days, AionGuard was a promising game where you played as a knight-sorcerer with lots of powers. You could build an army by recruiting people or even disrupt your opponents, much like in the Just Cause games. While it likely wouldn’t have looked as polished as later fantasy titles due to the limitations of the hardware at the time, the game’s creator, Sundberg, believes it had the potential to be truly innovative. He was disappointed that Avalanche Studios had to cancel the project, especially since the team was so enthusiastic about it.

We landed a deal with a major publisher known for popular franchises. However, they unexpectedly shifted their strategy to concentrate on projects they already owned, rather than taking on new ones. To make matters worse, they ended our partnership with a simple text message, which felt incredibly unprofessional and disrespectful.

It’s a shame that AionGuard had to struggle so Crimson Desert could succeed. But when it comes to games with big goals, we’re glad to see it happen, even if it took a while.

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2026-04-08 01:41