It’s easy to look at the success of the Avatar 2 release and wonder why the Avatar Frontiers of Pandora game was delayed. The two had initially been packaged together with dates that would coincide helping both of them so capitalise on the hype for both.
The game was first announced back in 2017 with Ubisoft in the developer hot seat to create the open world third person action adventure title. After the first look trailer (see below) landed early in 2022, it looked like everything was set for the winter 2022 release date, which would have been similar to Avatar The Way of Water.
AdvertisementHowever, half way through the year, it transpired that Frontiers of Pandora would be delayed and that we’re not looking at either 2023 or 2024. With such a big opportunity to coincide with the film, and no more Avatar movies until the third installment in December 2024 it begs the question why was the game delayed.
If that isn’t enough to wrack your brains with, developers Ubisoft are struggling a little at the moment in terms of financial performance. This is due in part to games like Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope not doing as well as they might have hoped and no big game title out in time for Christmas 2022.
Avatar Frontiers of Pandora would have been a perfect launch for the huge gaming house, coming just in time to save the year. As it transpired it was taken off the slate earlier in 2022 and now it’s all a bit up in the air in terms of when the release date will finally land.
Was it delayed due to COVID and resource stretch?
With the game announced in 2017, development seems likely to have been impacted by the global COVID pandemic. Ubisoft is a fairly large organisation in terms of developers with offices in a number of locations around the world, but with production slowed due to the pandemic, it’s possible that it contributed to it being delayed.
AdvertisementHowever, the visuals in the Avatar Frontiers of Pandora first look trailer made things look like we were on for winter 2022. The impact of COVID was definitely fading by the time it came out and that still left Ubisoft with over nine months to complete the project, so we’re not convinced it’s the reason for the delay.
Another option is that they have had a few years of experimentation and diversification in a bid to crack new markets like free to play online. These haven’t done a great job of breaking into the genre, but the efforts might have distracted the company from focusing on core IPs like Assassin’s Creed and its big Avatar release.
While that might be the case in general, Ubisoft will have scheduled out its resources to cover the game to completion. If that isn’t enough, the fact that there hasn’t been a followup release date revealed following the delay hints at something bigger.
A good comparison is with Horizon Forbidden West, which was due out in November 2021, but delayed to February 2022 to make sure the game was fully developed and ready to go. Here, it was all to do with resource and polish, so the game was delayed and soon afterwards given a new release date that wasn’t too long after the initial plan.
AdvertisementFor Avatar Frontiers of Pandora, the delay was revealed way before it was planned for release and there is still no definitive followup confirmed as of yet. In fact, Ubisoft has gone a bit radio silence in terms of the future of the game with little in the way of any news or video from them.
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A major overhaul has delayed Avatar Frontiers of Pandora
When you look at this in the round, it seems the logical assumption is that something more significant has delayed Avatar Frontiers of Pandora. This points to a major overhaul of the game, which would tie up with the woolly 2023 to 2024 expectation we have at the moment.
For us, this is likely to be the main reason why it has been delayed so indefinitely with the possibility of a little COVID and resource challenge thrown in for good measure. If we assume that to be the case then it begs the question why the game needs a drastic change so far into development in the first place.
AdvertisementThere are a couple options with play testing being a strong contender. If Ubisoft has put this in front of a group of testers that didn’t rate it very well then they could have decided to make some pretty drastic changes to improve it.
With such a high profile title, the movie studio to impress and troublesome financials it makes sense for them to get things right. If testing pointed to some significant drawbacks to the gameplay, story or performance then Ubisoft might be taking its time to refine all of this until it’s got the best chance of success.
However, another option is film studio intervention, which could have led to Avatar Frontiers of Pandora being delayed. This could be anything from trying to spread out their release schedule, to issues with the gameplay or ethos of the game. If the planned release didn’t fit in with 20th Century Studios schedule or it didn’t meat their expectations then that could have also led to things going back to parts of the drawing board.
The game has a big challenge of bringing the world of Pandora to life without losing the morality message of Avatar 2. The stories are different and there isn’t any specific crossover, but they still need to line up, so maybe there was a mismatch somewhere along the line.
It’s going to be interesting to see where things go next for Avatar Frontiers of Pandora. Hopefully, we’ll get an update from Ubisoft in the not too distant future. Other big series adaptations like Hogwarts Legacy look set to do well, so maybe that will spur things along on this project.
We’ll update you with more details on the game as they’re confirmed. You can also check out our computer games section to keep tabs on the game. Visit the Avatar Frontier of Pandora website at https://www.ubisoft.com/sv-se/game/avatar-frontiers-of-pandora for more details.
