Is Ubisoft’s Avatar game still happening? There’s no indication that it isn’t, but not much has been said since Ubisoft said it was slated for a 2020 release. It’s unknown what the future of the Avatar franchise will be, and whether Massive Entertainment’s game will ever come out.
Avatar the film released back in 2009. It was so successful that it became the number one box office movie of all time. Since then, Avengers: Endgame has been the only film to surpass Avatar in box office gross. Nonetheless, Avatar became a household name, and nearly every facet of global business jumped at the chance to partner with the IP. One of the companies that did so was Ubisoft, who tasked Massive Entertainment in developing an Avatar game for consoles and PC. Massive Entertainment is fully owned by Ubisoft and previously developed the well-regarded The Division games.
It seems like everything is business as usual at Massive Entertainment. The developer is currently hiring for several positions to work on what they dub The Avatar Project. The positions posted as open include: technical support, game testers, and many more including lead game designer. It’s no doubt that Massive Entertainment has been hard at work; The Division 2 released just earlier this year.
From the looks of things, it appears that Massive has prioritized development of The Division games over The Avatar Project. Whether this be at the discretion of Ubisoft or the developer itself is unknown. There’s probably a small team working on The Avatar Project, and they most likely have plans to expand their development team as production ramps up. However, Avatar is not a brand that’s known for reaching deadlines. Although the sequel to the film was initially planned to release in the few years following the original, it’s now reported that Avatar 2 is due for a 2021 release. Not only that, but Disney also plans to release Avatar sequels on a bi-annual basis starting in 2021. Skepticism aside, it seems optimistic to think that will be the case with the series long-standing issues with scheduled releases.
As of now, The Avatar Project is scheduled to release a full year before Avatar 2. Is that likely to happen? Who knows? All bets are off with what the future holds for Avatar. Massive Entertainment has given no hint to suggest a troubled development for the game, but the lack of transparency could certainly give fans cause for concern. Avatar is a brand that has embraced the reality of being a franchise known for false promises. Recently, the official Avatar twitter account turned to posting self-acknowledging memes about common criticisms of the franchise.
Last Updated: November 21, 2019
Next: Why The First Avatar Took James Cameron So Long To Make
Source: Massive Entertainment
