Avalanche founder Christofer Sundberg has hit back at Mad Max film director George Miller for claiming the studio’s game “wasn’t as good as [he] wanted it to be”.
During promotion for the new Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga film, Miller was asked by GamingBible about whether a new game was considered alongside the film.
He responded that Avalanche’s previous game “wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be”, adding “I’m one of those people that I’d rather not do something unless you can do it at the highest level”. He then said he’d love for Hideo Kojima to take on the challenge of a Mad Max game – because, of course.
Sundberg has since hit back at Miller, stating “this is complete nonsense” that shows his “complete arrogance”.
“They did everything they could to make this a complete linear game after having signed up with a developer of open-world games,” wrote Sundberg on X. “I’m sure Hideo Kojima would make an awesome Mad Max game, but it would be a completely different experience.”
He continued: “After the first year of development they realised that they had forced us to make a linear experience rather than the open world game we pitched. We threw away a year of work and got to hear that ‘players want autonomy in this day and age’. Well, no shit…”
Larian Studios director of publishing Michael Douse also weighed in, claiming the developers didn’t have access to the film assets, which made it “pretty difficult to capture the spirit of it when legal is precious about IP”. He added: “A ‘small’ nuance probably Miller doesn’t even know.”
Mad Max was released by Avalanche (and publisher Warner Bros. Games) in 2015 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One, the same year as the film Mad Max: Fury Road. It was a third-person open world action-adventure game inspired by the Mad Max franchise, but separate to any specific film.
This followed the studio’s work on the Just Cause open world games it was known for. Just Cause 3 was released shortly after Mad Max.
Mad Max received mixed reviews – not the “highest level” Miller was expecting – but has since been considered something of an underrated gem.
“Like Shadow of Mordor before it, Mad Max sees Warner Bros thoughtfully apply its filmic property to an open world,” reads our Eurogamer Mad Max review.