In the wake of the delay to Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Ubisoft says it intends to make sure the franchise becomes a major video game brand, so the upcoming release needs to be "perfect."
"What we feel is that the Avatar brand can become a video game brand," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said during a conference call following today's financial earnings report. "Because the potential is just enormous. There are also lots of movies coming and lots of activity on that brand in the next few years. We are treating that brand like a video game brand, so we are putting all the energy of the team to make sure it is a fantastic game."
A bit later in the call, Guillemot added: "As we want to make it a video game industry brand, it is important for us that we come with something that is perfect."
Ubisoft previously released Avatar: The Game as a prequel to the original film in 2009, which with its lukewarm response certainly did not create a gaming brand - though the dormancy of the film franchise likely didn't help.
As part of today's earnings report, Ubisoft announced that Frontiers of Pandora had been delayed to the company's next fiscal year, running from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024. Guillemot says that "the delay is due to the fact that working conditions are more difficult in the industry at the moment, where people can't come to the office as often. So that had an impact. It was the biggest impact."
The Avatar 2 film, officially called Avatar: The Way of Water, is still due out this December.
