Ubisoft's Star Wars and Avatar studio head has left the company

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David Polfeldt was meant to return from sabbatical in a managing role

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Ubisoft Massive's managing director has confirmed he's departed the company.

That's according to an interview in the Hitpoints newsletter, published last week, featuring a new profile of Ubisoft Massive's David Polfeldt. While Polfeldt was originally meant to return from a sabbatical he embarked on last year in a new managing role, he's now decided to depart the Sweden-based development studio entirely.

Ubisoft Massive is most recently known as the developer behind The Division looter shooters. On the horizon however, it's currently working on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, which was first announced for PC and new-gen consoles alike last year in June, as well as the relatively recently-announced Ubisoft Star Wars game, which was announced just a few months prior in January 2021.

Right now, details on both games are hard to come by. The new Star Wars game was announced as a new open-world adventure last year, taking advantage of Ubisoft's new Snowdrop engine, but there's no word on when in the Star Wars timeline it'll actually be set. Meanwhile, we've at least got a teaser trailer to go on for the forthcoming Avatar games from Ubisoft Massive, which is slated to launch at some point later this year.

With Ubisoft Massive's managing director now stepping down, it'll be interesting to see whether the scheduled launch of the Avatar game later this year is impacted at all. One would think, given Ubisoft Massive's size, that a succession plan would already be lined up for Polfeldt's departure.

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.