Everything you need to know ahead of Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora’s release
What is Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora, and when is it coming out?It’s a big time for Avatar fans, with the recent release of Avatar: The Way Of Water predictably having surpassed $2 billion worldwide at the box office, and the opportunity to jump into the jawdroppingly beautiful (and deadly) world of Pandora for ourselves seemingly just around the corner.
Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandorais an open-world first-person adventure game being developed by Ubisoft’s own Massive Entertainment, and from what admittedly little we’ve seen of the game so far, there’s still a lot of reason to be excited.
Below we’ll walk you through absolutely everything we know about Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora, from its expected release date and platforms to trailers, story and gameplay info, engine details, and more.
Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora expected release date
Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora will be available on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Amazon Luna. Those expecting to play the game on last-gen hardware are going to be disappointed, because developers Massive Entertainment have said from the start that the game is “developed exclusively for the new generation of consoles and PC”.
The trailer shows off lots of first and third person looks at some gorgeous Pandoran vistas, and more than a few familiar sights, from the flying Ikran to the panther-like Thanators and Direhorses. We also see glimpses of the human RDA forces threatening the native Na’vi.
Massive Entertainment collaborated with Lightstorm, James Cameron’s company, during development of Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora. Massive’s creative director Magnus Jansen has said that they want to “push the envelope of technology” with the game, in much the same way as the Avatar films did within the film industry.
James Cameron himself is not directly involved with Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora. In aninterview with IGN, the Avatar director cleared things up with the following:
Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora has been confirmed as movie canon. According to Jon Landau, co-producer of Avatar: The Way Of Water, they want every story in the Avatar universe to be canon, Frontiers Of Pandora included.
Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora is set during the events of Avatar: The Way Of Water, but is set along the western frontier of Pandora - an entirely new area of Pandora hitherto unseen in the films.
The western frontier setting gives the devs the chance to introduce brand new creatures and characters, but the human-run RDA are still the main threat inpinging on the Na’vi living there.
We don’t know whether familiar faces such as Jake and Neytiri will make a return in the game, but we do know that the playable character will be a new Na’vi. The other tidbit of information we have so far is that General Ardmore - senior to Colonel Quaritch, main antagonist of the first Avatar film - will be referenced in Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora in some way.
We haven’t yet seen much actual gameplay of Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora, although Massive have described the game as a first-person action adventure set in an “immersive, open world” - something of a speciality for Ubisoft.
The First Look trailer shows off several segments of mounted combat and traversal, which suggests that players may be able to ride Direhorses, Ikran, and other beasts to quickly cross large distances in the open world of Pandora.
The world will be full of NPCs who can perform various different actions in the world rather than just staying still and awaiting interaction from the player. According to Lead Narrative Realization Designer Alice Rendell, “our NPCs understand the state of the world - for example, weather, player progression, or time of day”.
Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora is being developed in Ubisoft’s own Snowdrop engine. This same engine has been used to createTom Clancy’s The Division 2,South Park: The Fractured But Whole, and Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope.
Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora will be an offline singleplayer game. Currently there has been no indication that a multiplayer mode will ever be added either pre- or post-release, so don’t expect to be able to jump into Pandora with your Na’vi-fied friends anytime soon.
Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora is being developed by Massive Entertainment, an Ubisoft studio. Previously, Massive Entertainment developedTom Clancy’s The Divisionand The Division 2, as well asFar Cry 3,Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, andWorld In Conflict.
Massive Entertainment are also currently developing anas-yet untitled Star Wars gamealongside their work on Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora.
