Disney allowed Ubisoft Massive to make a Star Wars game off the back of a meeting about Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
This new detail comes from IGN, in an interview with Disney Games senior vice president Sean Shoptaw. "That first meeting we had with Massive around the Avatar game after we acquired Fox was really the jumping off point for the Star Wars game," Shoptaw explained. "There was such alignment and such creative passion around the Star Wars IP from that team that it just was a natural evolution to the relationship, and really led to the Star Wars game we announced not too long ago."
"We certainly had aspirations about an open-world Star Wars game. It didn't come exclusively from Massive," the Disney Games vice president continued. "They certainly had a passion for it too, to the point that made it a lot easier for those conversations to advance. But we're aware of the things you outlined, right? We're aware of what fans have have asked for and have wanted for long periods of time."
For those that are unaware, Ubisoft announced earlier this year that they were developing a new open-world Star Wars game at Ubisoft Massive, a developer known for The Division games. This was the result of Disney choosing not to renew their exclusive contract for Star Wars games with developer/publisher Electronic Arts, finally opening up the floor for other developers to work on Star Wars projects.
Right now, we don't know any official details about the upcoming Star Wars game from Ubisoft Massive. It's easy to speculate that, because of the studio's pedigree for shooter games with The Division series, the new Star Wars game could follow that path, but right now, nothing whatsoever has been confirmed by either the studio or Ubisoft at large.
It's a fascinating detail that Disney didn't even know who should develop their open-world Star Wars game, until they met with Ubisoft Massive. It's also a very positive sign for the upcoming Avatar game, which was finally re-revealed last week at Ubisoft's Forward showcase for E3 2021, several years after it was first announced in 2017 and subsequently went radio silent.
We finally know that Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S next year in 2022, making it a new-gen exclusive game. We actually don't know a huge amount about the Avatar game right now, but the new trailer for the game last week pointed towards us exploring the massive world of Pandora through open-world gameplay, complete with mounts and traversal elements. There's a while to wait yet until we can explore Pandora for ourselves, but there's an even longer wait to see what Ubisoft Massive's Star Wars project looks like.
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