While many studios today are moving away from licensed games, Ubisoft continues to invest development resources in games based on popular entertainment properties like South Park and James Cameron's Avatar. Speaking to IGN at Gamescom 2017, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot explained why the company is interested in licensed games, despite the stigma that surrounds them.
"What we realized when we started to create worlds is that the quality of the world is very important for the experience," Guillemot told IGN, noting that when they saw Avatar, they were struck by how, like Star Wars, it has a "fantastic world with a philosophy." And so The Division developer Massive Entertainment is now working with Fox Interactive and Cameron's studio Lightstorm Entertainment to make a game that the Avatar director believes will "bring the beauty and danger of Pandora to life."
According to Guillemot, Ubisoft sees the new Avatar game as an opportunity to use "teams that are passionate about that world" to create a compelling project with a long-term vision. "So we said, 'okay, we have to rethink about contractual elements with the movie industry.' So we did change the terms," Guillemot explained, noting "it's a different type of deal than what we had before."
For those unfamiliar, Ubisoft Montreal developed a third-person action game in 2009 that served as a prequel to Avatar, which didn't receive the most glowing reviews from critics.
This time around, Ubisoft is taking a renewed approach. "Now we are joining forces and we really have this angle, which is to make sure that world works well, that people come and stay for a long time and enjoy it, so that we can have new content regularly," Guillemot explained. "We have to remanufacture also the relationship with studios, and in doing that, I think we can recreate something totally different."
Like Avatar 2, which won't be released until December 2020, Ubisoft's upcoming Avatar game is also a ways off from being released, which will give Massive Entertainment plenty of time to make a compelling experience. "Because the movie is also taking it's time, we have enough time to really create something that will be fantastic," Guillemot said.
Avatar isn't the only licensed game Ubisoft has on the horizon, as next month brings with it the release of South Park: The Fractured But Whole. For our thoughts on the gross and incredibly crude RPG, check out IGN's hands-on impressions of the first four hours of The Fractured But Whole.
Alex Osborn is a freelance writer for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @alexcosborn.
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