Ubisoft landed their Star Wars game after meeting Disney about the Avatar game

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Disney was pretty impressed with Ubisoft Massive's passion for both games

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Disney allowed Ubisoft Massive to make a Star Wars game off the back of a meeting about Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

This new detail comes from IGN, in an interview with Disney Games senior vice president Sean Shoptaw. "That first meeting we had with Massive around the Avatar game after we acquired Fox was really the jumping off point for the Star Wars game," Shoptaw explained. "There was such alignment and such creative passion around the Star Wars IP from that team that it just was a natural evolution to the relationship, and really led to the Star Wars game we announced not too long ago."

"We certainly had aspirations about an open-world Star Wars game. It didn't come exclusively from Massive," the Disney Games vice president continued. "They certainly had a passion for it too, to the point that made it a lot easier for those conversations to advance. But we're aware of the things you outlined, right? We're aware of what fans have have asked for and have wanted for long periods of time."

Right now, we don't know any official details about the upcoming Star Wars game from Ubisoft Massive. It's easy to speculate that, because of the studio's pedigree for shooter games with The Division series, the new Star Wars game could follow that path, but right now, nothing whatsoever has been confirmed by either the studio or Ubisoft at large.

It's a fascinating detail that Disney didn't even know who should develop their open-world Star Wars game, until they met with Ubisoft Massive. It's also a very positive sign for the upcoming Avatar game, which was finally re-revealed last week at Ubisoft's Forward showcase for E3 2021, several years after it was first announced in 2017 and subsequently went radio silent.

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.