Ubisoft’s big day of delays, cancellations: Avatar open-world game moves to FY24

Enlarge / Ubisoft insists that its first video game based on the film series Avatar is still on the way—but will now miss its original "2022" launch window. (credit: Ubisoft)

Fans of gaming mega-publisher Ubisoft may have held out hope that an upcoming presentation, slated to stream online in September, might contain a few surprises or confirmations for more big games coming in 2022. The company's latest financial disclosure presentation popped that balloon, however, in a massive way.

A Thursday disclosure to investors was paired with an audio presentation hosted by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, and its first nine minutes contained mostly doom and gloom. After confirming previously announced plans to launch a Mario + Rabbids sequel and the long-delayed Skull & Bones pirate-battling game, Guillemot confirmed two lengthy game delays and four game cancellations—while remaining mum about at least two games in apparent development limbo.

More like “The Way of the Wait”

The arguably biggest news concerns a delay to Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, an open-world adventure game based on James Cameron's Avatar film series. The game is now slated to launch in Ubisoft's "fiscal year 24," which could mean any time between April 2023 and March 2024. That's a substantial bump from its original "2022" launch window—which could have put it near the December 16 launch of that film series' first sequel in 13 years, Avatar: The Way of the Water.