Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a “brand new story with brand new characters”

The game-of the-movie skips out on the original story for better or worse.

One of the most unexpected announcements made at E3 was the game-of-the movie for James Cameron’s Avatar. Although the 2009 film was the most successful of all time, the general public’s reaction to it is to recall the spectacleof the movie, but not the details. It was amazing to see it in 3D. And the name of the main character was… Jake.

Avatar Frontiers of Pandora, the upcoming game, completely ignores this issue. VentureBeat spoke with Luigi Priore (Vice President of Disney and Pixar Games), about their approach.

“[T]here was a period 15 to 20 years ago when watching the movie was something. The game was purchased and the movie played. You can play the Sega Genesis classic Aladdin game. The film was enjoyed by you. This was a popular film at the time but gamers now expect more. They want to interact and create new stories with their favorite characters and the worlds they inhabit.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will explore the “amazing science-fiction world” Priore described as a “great playground to play in” instead of retracing old ground. This is an admittedly strange approach to setting, I think, because it’s not as if they exist to be more that cool or beautiful.

The whole idea is to make it a part of the Pandora storyline, but it’s not a play the movie’ game. Priore says it’s an entirely new world with new characters. It’s called Frontiers of Pandora because of this. It takes place in another frontier, an area on the moon of Pandora.

Some critics are skeptical about the title of the game. The original film’s story was about colonialism so inviting players explore a new “frontier” of Pandora is loaded language. We will have to wait to see what happens as Avatar’s canonical universe is expanding beyond this game. There are also three additional films, including Avatar 2 and Frontiers of Pandora.

VentureBeat has the complete interview. To learn more about Disney’s game approach, including Star Wars and the new Sea of Thieves expansion, you can check out the entire interview.

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