how come is the worst title in the series the most expensive?

[GROOG]

and is avalanche studios dead?

[uglyface2]

Just Cause 4 is the newest game in the series. It does go down in price from time to time. Also, Avalanche Studios isn't dead, according to their website. They've released a couple of games since JC4, and they're working on another game.

[Sourcerer]

I think SE rushed them and they set their scope of scale was too big. It's the biggest map by far but maybe the most void. Even the "cities" hardly have the same detail as the city in Just Cause 2. But I've always felt the devs understood landscapes more than cities, and 4 only reinforces that feeling.

It's a great game from a distance, but it's buggy and a downgrade from the previous titles in different ways.

Like post above said, studio not dead but has been split up into multiple studios to focus on different projects. One of these projects is Contraband. A crime heist co-op styled game. They hype it coming from the creators of Just Cause so it's possible this is the spiritual successor to the series, at least until SE wants JC5. Square Enix owns the IP to the series from what I can see.