Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has a lot riding on its shoulders. The game is the first major installment in the Avatar franchise in over a decade. With that comes the responsibility of not only reintroducing the Avatar series to audiences all over the world, but also connecting its universe across multiple different forms of media. Loosely speaking, there are some expectations in place for the upcoming game to prove the franchise wasn’t a fluke.
With impressive technical specs and a lot of ambition, it looks like the Avatar game is going to live up to that role at this point. But with all of those expectations is going to come some wariness. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will need to be the best game that it can be, and as a result, the amount of care that is likely needed to polish the game may see it getting delayed beyond its current release window.
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The last year and a half has seen almost every major industry cripple under the weight of the global pandemic. Video games are no different in this regard. It takes time and a lot of manpower to execute a finished product, and both have been somewhat limited by circumstance. While the team behind Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has likely put in countless hours so far, the added weight of what COVID-19 brought has affected everyone.
On the other hand, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora isn’t a typical game. Along with the dedicated team that works behind any game there is also a significant amount of money. With Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Studios, and subsequently the Avatar franchise, the company has shown considerable interest in the continuation of the series. The expected series will include four more movies releasing over the next decade to generate a story that rivals other popular Disney franchises. As a result, the game could very likely act to bridge the gap to the sequels.
Still, it does not hurt for fans to be cautiously optimistic. With how much is going into the already lucrative and groundbreaking series, whether or not players get to explore the moon the Na’vi live on next year is still up in the air. A 2022 release window leaves a lot of available time, but also still makes things flexible enough for a delay into Q1 2023 or later. Similarly, Avatar 2 was delayed into December of next year despite its original release of December 2021.
If the rest of the franchise follows suit, it wouldn’t be surprising at all for players to face off against the Resources Development Administration in 2023 instead. Complications for such a delay could interfere with the game's intended purpose, though. A delay into 2023 could prevent the game from tying Avatar and Avatar 2 together. However, since the first film continues to gross money, this stepping stone might not be necessary; making the game’s future release date as flexible as necessary.
Titles like Evil Dead: The Game and possibly even Horizon Forbidden West have seen delays recently, which is not a bad thing. Expectant fans shouldn’t be too surprised if Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora joins the list of titles that have been delayed. Stronger games at launch often mean better experiences for players, but getting to that strong, polished state is going to take more time than some might be used to waiting for.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is slated for release in 2022 on PC, PS5, Stadia, and Xbox Series X/S.
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