Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora offers a standalone story that is set in the same universe as Avatar: The Way of the Water.
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00:00 There are few fancy worlds as alluring as Pandora. This realm however has remained a
00:11 closely guarded commodity, ripe for further exploration, with precious few attempts made
00:15 to expedite its expansion. Until now that is, thanks to Ubisoft and Avatar Frontiers
00:20 of Pandora, which may just be one of the biggest games of 2023. Developer Massive Entertainment
00:26 has spent the last 5 years transforming Pandora into a playground. While the films may have
00:32 given us the opportunity to live vicariously through the Na'vi, this upcoming action/adventure
00:36 video game will let us embody one. One of the most exciting challenges has been to build
00:40 a living and reactive world inhabited by unique creatures and new characters, an ever before
00:46 seen part of Pandora that players will explore while playing as Na'vi, says Magnus Jansson,
00:52 director of Avatar Frontiers of Pandora. But thanks to the close collaboration with the
00:57 teams at Lightstorm Entertainment and Disney, we got to learn from the best.
01:02 The studio who is best known for engineering The Division and its 2019 sequel has been
01:07 entrusted with building the western frontier of Pandora, a space that is yet to be explored
01:11 on the big screen. That's sure to be a lot of pressure, but Jansson speaks positively
01:16 about the process. "One of the great things about working with Lightstorm and Disney is
01:20 that it's a very collaborative experience, with all teams involved. The collaboration
01:25 and involvement have been very consistent, positive and always productive. The result
01:30 is a partnership, with a free-form exchange of ideas between two parties looking to bring
01:34 to life the same universe through different mediums and enhance the immersion for fans."
01:40 That immersion will be rooted in the world of Pandora itself. You should expect to find
01:44 a lush open world waiting for you in Avatar Frontiers of Pandora, one which will allow
01:48 us to explore everything from grand vistas through the clouds to dense jungles that litter
01:53 the ground. A living and reactive play space awaits, where characters will wield an acute
01:58 understanding of the world state, tracking everything from time and weather to player
02:02 progression and the havoc that the Resources Development Administration, the RDA, forces
02:08 are unleashing on Pandora's natural beauty. Avatar Frontiers of Pandora is an ambitious
02:13 undertaking, particularly for a studio that established itself as the premier architect
02:17 of digital urban sprawls. But Janssen tells us that Massive Entertainment's long-standing
02:22 commitment to pushing technological boundaries with the Snowdrop engine, which has powered
02:27 its pursuit of Pandora since the Avatar project was first unveiled in 2017, gives all involved
02:32 parties confidence that it can pull this off.
02:35 "The time has been spent on building a brand new part of Pandora and creating the tools
02:39 needed to bring it to life on the latest generation of consoles and PC hardware. At the heart
02:44 of this effort is Snowdrop, our game engine. When we first met with Lightstorm, Snowdrop
02:48 is what showed to our partners that we were willing to push the envelope of technology,
02:53 just like they do in the films. It was and still is the key foundation of our ongoing
02:57 collaboration."
02:59 Ubisoft is yet to reveal Avatar Frontiers of Pandora gameplay, although an in-engine
03:04 teaser released in 2021 revealed a pretty substantial shift from what we've come to
03:09 expect from Massive. The team is responsible for some of the best third-person shooters
03:13 of the last generation, but this PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X effort will see the studio tackle
03:19 a first-person experience, where we will experience stalking through dense brush with a bow in
03:25 hand and soaring on the back of our very own Banshee through the eyes of a Na'vi.
03:30 Jansen explains that this experimentation has always been at the heart of Massive and
03:34 that he's been keen for players around the world to see what the studio can do as it
03:38 pushes into a new genre.
03:39 Well before The Division, Massive made RTS games, so it's in our DNA to jump into new
03:44 genres when our passion leads us there, and the world of Avatar convinced us. Ever since
03:49 the first film came out, everyone fell in love with Pandora. This place is full of wonder
03:54 and danger, which is the ultimate call to adventure. Our goal has always been to allow
03:58 people to finally get to go there and be immersed in that world, feel it and interact with it.
04:04 No better way to do so than first-person.
04:07 This standalone story, set before the time jump in Avatar Way of the Water, is scheduled
04:11 to release in Ubisoft's next financial year, which could fall between April 1st 2023 and
04:16 March 31st 2024. It's guaranteed to be a video game that defines the conversation around
04:22 the publishers this year, whether that's because we merely receive a look at the game
04:26 in action or finally get the opportunity to sit down and play Avatar Frontiers of Pandora
04:31 for ourselves.
04:32 [Music]
04:35 (whooshing)
04:37 (laughs)