The ‘Avatarhas no cultural footprint’ people are about to be crushed under the mighty blue heel of the Na’vi. Okay, that may be overstating it, but the franchise that gave us unobtainium will be unignorable this December.
That’s because this week, Ubisoft announced thata new updateis headed forAvatar: Frontiers of Pandoraon December 5. The DLC will add a third-person mode so you can get a better sense of just how far your Na’vi is towering over their puny human enemies as they shoot their way through RDA encampments. It will also add a New Game+ mode so players can go back to the beginning with all their endgame weapons and skills, unlocking a new skill tree as they fight more powerful enemies.
A Great Excuse To Go Back To A Good Game
Despitebeing amazed by how good it looked, I only ever played the first few hours of Frontiers of Pandora. I got out of the research facility where the main Na’vi was kept as a test subject, explored the open world for a few hours, then bounced because there were more current games I needed to play.
I didn’t bounce because it wasn’t good. I bounced because it wasn’trelevant, and there’s a big difference. Which is why I appreciateUbisoftdeciding to make the game ultra-relevant by tying it to the release of James Cameron’s next Avatar movie, Fire and Ash, which is set to hit theaters December 19th. Just as the marketing cycle for Fire and Ash is hitting its fever pitch, you’ll have a raft of new content in Frontiers of Pandora to scratch your Avatar itch. This strategy isn’t anything new — branded tie-ins are almost as old as video games — but it points to how tie-ins can evolve in the live-service era.
Back in the day, a new movie in a series would warrant a new licensed game, sometimes several. It’s the reason there aredozens of Shrek games, despite there only being four mainline movies and two Puss in Boots spin-offs. Now that games take longer to make and more resources, the approach Frontiers of Pandora is taking makes a lot more sense. Don’t devote a bunch of money to making a new game that will likely get lost in the shuffle; devote a little money to making an update that gives movie fans another opportunity to discover a game that’s already out and full-featured.
But Frontiers Of Pandora Could Go Further
If anything, I wish Ubisoft and developer Massive Entertainment were going further. It’s cool that the game is getting new features, but it would be even cooler if those features were directly tied into the unique elements of Pandora that we’ll get to see in Fire and Ash. We don’t know that much about the movie yet — though that will change when the first trailer hits theaters ahead of The Fantastic Four: First Steps this weekend — but the title hints at one of the things we do know. This is a movie about violence and its consequences.Per Cameron:
“I don’t think I could say too much about it until you actually see the film and you see what it means, but if you think of fire as hatred, anger, violence, that sort of thing, and ash is the aftermath. So what’s the aftermath? Grief, loss, right? And then what does that cause in the future? More violence, more anger, more hatred. It’s a vicious cycle. So that’s the thinking.”
The movie is set to introduce the volcano-dwelling Mangkwan Clan, too, so the metaphorical fire and ash will be set amidstliteralfire and ash. That sounds like an extremely cool thing to see in an Avatar game, and I wish Frontiers of Pandora was adding a scorched, rocky biome with lava flows and dangerous eruptions in time for the movie.
It’s possible that Massive is planning to add exactly what I’m pitching here, but is waiting until Avatar: Fire and Ash has finished what will likely be a massive theatrical run. If not, I hope they add it in time for Avatar 4.
