Ubisoft has a knack for showcasing the graphical fidelity of games, and Massive’s upcoming Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is looking absolutely stunning running on Snowdrop. They have improved the tech, how non-playable characters interact with the world, and every bit of asset detail. The Snowdrop engine perfectly simulates the grand vistas of Pandora, giving it the visual treat every fan is hungry for.
“Snowdrop allowed us to build amazing cities, but to capture the natural beauty of Pandora we needed to push Snowdrop even further,” according to Sebastian Lindoff, Ubisoft Massive’s Technical Art Director, in the Snowdrop Tech Showcase video. On a deep technical level, Senior Technical Artist Kunal Luthra stated they have used the micro-detail system of Snowdrop to propagate tons of assets in a single frame to create those realistic visuals.
There are only a few things that we know about the Avatar game. It’s going to be in first-person mode, pushing for the immersive experience, and that it’s going to be an action-adventure open-world game. Massive’s portfolio gives us hope, but that does not mean Ubisoft isn’t disregarding the possibility of monetizing the game by including micro-transactions or loot boxes as it’s been an ongoing trend for triple-A publishers.
Massive is also working on an untitled open-world Star Wars title, making it the first game being developed outside the Electronic Arts home court.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is expected to launch only on next-gen consoles and PC in 2022.