With Avatar: The Way of Water proving James Cameron’s franchise definitely still has legs, Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment’s Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is sure to be a big deal when it arrives. That said, we still don’t know all that much about the game, with a brief trailer being the extent of what Ubisoft has shown publicly. Well, we may now know a bit more, courtesy of a job ad and some fresh rumors.
Ubisoft recently posted a job ad for a monetization specialist, which makes clear that the successful candidate will go on to work at Massive Entertainment following a training period. Once at Massive, the new hire will be working with “game economy designers” to develop monetization strategies, help set up “primary and secondary stores,” and work with the UX team to make sure everything is fully integrated into the game. So yeah, this is an Ubisoft game, so it’s not a huge shock, but it does seem like Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is getting the full monetization sweep.
Meanwhile, a new leaker going by the Reddit handle Eht Hctins has popped up with some gameplay details for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. This person doesn’t have much of a history, so definitely take what they say with a sizable grain of salt, but the details are interesting to consider nonetheless.
Our leaker’s impressions seem positive overall, with them vouching for the game’s shooting mechanics and sharing that you’ll be able to tame various creatures on Pandora. Ultimately though, the most interesting tidbit is that Massive may be rethinking the now-stale Ubisoft approach to open world design. Instead of littering the map with objective markers, quests will give players a general area they need to visit where they’ll have to figure out what to do. The map is also said to change as the game progresses and a dynamic weather system will force players to adapt strategies at times (flying mounts can’t be used in a storm, for example).
Again, grain of salt! That said, if this is the real deal, it sounds like Massive and Ubisoft may be tip-toeing outside of their comfort zone, which can only be a good thing. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora launches on PC, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and Luna sometime in Ubisoft's fiscal year 2024, which starts in April 2023 and ends in March 2024.
