When Avatar was released in 2009, it introduced the beautiful life-like world of Pandora. It was so vividly detailed and fantastic one couldn't help but wonder how it feels to fully explore it.
Game publisher Ubisoft probably had the same idea. It just announced that it will bring the world of James Cameron's Avatar to its full glory in the form of a video game. Working with Ubisoft in this project is Lightstorm Entertainment and Fox Interactive. Ubisoft's development Studio Massive Entertainment will lead in recreating Pandora's details. Attention to details is Massive Entertainment's calling card, having produced the massive open world of Tom Clancy's The Division.
No launch date or other details have been revealed, but Ubisoft released a video discussing the collaboration.
Bringing Pandora To Life
The video did not reveal any details, but it did show the excitement of the team in charge of bringing Pandora to life via a video game.
"The game should deliver on that promise, it should be the ultimate experience where you actually go to Pandora and where you can live your alternative life on the moon," said one developer.
This can only mean that the upcoming game could be an open world style, given Ubisoft and Massive's track record of successful open world games. The game will utilize Massive's proprietary technology, the Snowdrop game engine.
According to the statement released to the press, Ubisoft was able to woo Cameron and Lightstorm to the drawing table after they saw an early game concept done using the Snowdrop engine.
"What impressed me about Massive were the group's passion for this project and the power of its Snowdrop engine," Cameron said. He added that Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment are the right people to recreate his vision for Pandora.
Snowdrop is a tailor-made game engine that allows Massive to create "ultra-realistic game universes, enhanced by dynamic global illumination, stunning real-time destruction and an incredible amount of detail and visual effects." The best-selling The Division runs on Snowdrop engine, and its success is what Ubisoft aspires to replicate.
A Dream Collaboration
Massive Entertainment's managing director David Polfeldt was equally impressed with Cameron and Lightstorm Entertainment and what they did with Avatar, its stellar storytelling and the immersive world of Pandora.
"It's a privilege to work with them and we're honoured that they've entrusted us to create an experience worthy of the Avatar name," Polfeldt said.
This is not the first time Ubisoft and Lightstorm have created an Avatar-based game. In 2009, Ubisoft released James Cameron's Avatar: The Game, a third-person shooter for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC; it was widely panned by critics.
