Ubisoft Forward’s E3 2021 showcase gave gamers around the world a teaser of what to expect fromAvatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Before that, Ubisoft Massive was confirmed to be helming an open-worldStar Warsgame earlier this year. Whiledetails about theStar Warsproject are probably further out now, SVP of Disney Games Sean Shoptaw revealed that Disney was convinced to let Ubisoft Massive helm the open-worldStar Warsgame following its first meeting with the developer.
Astonishingly, the topic of a newStar WarsIP wasn’t even the primary objective for Disney’s meeting with Ubisoft Massive. The meeting happened back in 2019 when Disney had recently acquired Fox. As a result of the merger, the company wanted to meet with Ubisoft to discuss the already-in-developmentAvatarproject. It was that meeting that led to the development of theStar Warsgame.
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In an interview with IGN, Shoptaw went into further detail aboutwhat swayed Disney in favor of Ubisoft Massivecreating the open-worldStar Warsgame. According to Shoptaw, the creative passion and synergy had between the two entities regarding theStar WarsIP served as a natural progression to Ubisoft taking over as developer.
Notably,Ubisoft wasn’t the first choicewhen it came to an open-worldStar Warsgame. Disney had aspirations long before due to years of requests from fans, though the passion shared with Ubisoft Massive eased communication between the two. Even knowing this, there’s no way Ubisoft’sStar Warscould have come before 2023 as EA signed an exclusivity deal in 2013 that lasts 10 years.
Of course,delaying theStar Warsgamewasn’t a bad thing for Disney. According to Shoptaw, although demand was high, the main concern was doing it with the right partner at the right time. The worst fear for Disney was making a product that wasn’t true to what fans wanted or something that wasn’t successful otherwise. Still, it seems there’s a lot to look forward to, as Shoptaw was ecstatic with the progress that Ubisoft Massive had made.
“…We’re super, super excited about where this game is going. I was just on a call actually this morning with the Massive team about it, and could not be more excited about where they’re taking this game and the opportunity we have with this experience.”
As of now, there’s no telling how much of an influenceAvatar: Frontiers of Pandorawill have on the open-worldStar Warsgame. One thing for certain is that there’s a lot riding on the success ofFrontiers of Pandora. On the other hand, James Cameron’s team shared the same level of trust in Ubisoft Massive as Disney, loaning a lot of credibility to the developer. Not to mention,the E3 2021 revealshowed that Ubisoft is taking steps in the right direction.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandorawill release in 2022 on Amazon Luna, Google Stadia, PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
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