Come 2015, Just Cause 3 will bring the chaotic open-world franchise to the sun-kissed beaches of the Mediterranean, replete with explosions and planes falling from the sky because, well, just because. But one feature that won’t be included in the anticipated threequel at launch is a multiplayer component, with developer Avalanche Studios confirming that the company shelved the online mode in favour of perfecting the sandbox experience we know and love.
Speaking to Game Informer — which will sport the title for its upcoming December issue — the studio’s co-founder Christofer Sundberg touched upon the reasoning behind the decision.
“Maybe sometime down the line, we’ll take Rico into the modern world of multiplaying,” Sundberg explained.
“We don’t expect the fans to make the multiplayer for Just Cause 3, but at some point you have to make a choice on where your focus is. Our strength is the sandbox experience, and we want to deliver a great Just Cause 3 experience.”
Fans of the series will know that this is like-for-like what happened with Just Cause 2 back in 2010. With no multiplayer features to speak of, ardent players took it upon themselves to create an online multiplayer mod for the game, which released on Steam in 2013 after a full two years in development. So, there’s no reason that lightning couldn’t strike twice for Avalanche’s beloved franchise.
Elsewhere in the interview, Roland Lesterlin — Just Cause 3‘s game director — was asked about the scale of the upcoming sequel, where he stated that although the game will be smaller than its immediate predecessor, the studio ensured that the map will be brimming with meaningful content.
“Just Cause 2 was already enormous,” he explained. “We really want to focus now on density and the feel of the world itself.
“So we didn’t necessarily just have to do increased land mass, but we have certainly gone a lot bigger when it comes to density of the world and now it’s not just on top of the world, we also have caves and tunnels and all sorts of stuff there too.”
Just Cause 3 is due to arrive for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC in 2015. In the meantime, check out some screenshots from the game below.
