Whenever Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora finally launches, the game will have some heavy weights on its shoulders. For one thing, this will be the first entry into the series in over a decade. That means the game is going to have to work to jumpstart interest in the franchise again. There's a very real chance that people behind this game, as well as the upcoming Avatar movies, are hoping Frontiers of Pandora can bridge the gap.

In order to bridge that gap, the upcoming Ubisoft title is going to have to thread a needle. One of the more interesting aspects of the movie was how it pushed a story of tragic colonialism and the wanton murder of native people. While that was obviously intentional and the moral of that story was very clear the evils of that particular approach, it's still a touchy subject. If Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora wants to have real success, it's going to need to find a way to handle that aspect just right. That's not a particularly easy thing to do, especially for Ubisoft.

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Frontiers of Pandora Can Reinvigorate The Avatar Franchise

If Ubisoft can find a way to thread that needle, there's a very real chance that this game will indeed make the Avatar franchise popular again. The situation around this title is nearly unprecedented. Frontiers of Pandora isn't picking up a long-dormant but very popular video game series. It's basically trying to pick up where the last Avatar film left off, which is perfect for diehard movie fans, but there really isn't a video game footprint for Avatar. Usually in this business, the movie is supposed to reinvigorate interest in a video game, not the other way around. Frontiers of Pandora is apparently looking to set the stage for the future James Cameron flicks.

When talking about threading this particular needle, it's going to be important for Frontiers of Pandora to forge its own path. It's going to be much easier to start with a clean slate than to try and continue the earlier story, either in the film, or the 2009 Avatar video game adaptation. Staying away from those particular stories gives the developers a bit more leeway.

The fact of the matter is that there isn't a ton known about Frontiers of Pandora other than so far it looks very pretty. Perhaps the focus of this game will be more about how the Na'vi live and blend in with their world. Maybe the attention will be paid less to how the native population faces off against invading forces. Though that would also seem to ignore what the point of the original game actually was.

The big question is how much Ubisoft sticks to what has seemingly been its mantra over the last few years. Even when the company releases games that appear to have obvious political aspects like Far Cry 5 or Far Cry 6, execs tend to claim there isn't a political push. When talking about the underlying message of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, claiming there is no politics involved is going to be even harder to manage. The company should lean into the freeing aspect of most gamers knowing this story is geared towards making a statement. They just need to lean into it in the right way, but whether they can accomplish that will be seen next year.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is slated for release in 2022 on Amazon Luna, Google Stadia, PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.

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