Ubisoft has announced that its upcoming first-person open world adventure, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has been delayed to April 2023 at the earliest.
Revealed as part of Ubisoft's Q1 earnings report, the game was delayed into Ubisoft's 2023-24 financial year, which begins next April. No more specific release timeframe was given.
After an announcement in 2017 and a reveal in 2021, we've heard remarkably little about the project – meaning many won't be too surprised by the delay. Developed by The Division developer, Massive, the project was apparently impressive enough to convince Disney to let them make a Star Wars game, too.
No reasoning was given for the delay. Ubisoft did say, "We are committed to delivering a cutting-edge immersive experience that takes full advantage of next-gen technology, as this amazing global entertainment brand represents a major multi-year opportunity for Ubisoft."
"While this additional development time is a reflection of the current ongoing constraints on productions across the industry," it continued, "we are hard at work to design the most efficient working conditions to ensure both flexibility for our teams as well as strong productivity while delivering the best experiences to players."
Update: Speaking at an earnings Q&A, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said the game had been delayed, "due to the fact that working conditions are more difficult in the industry at the moment, where people can't come to the office as often. That's had an impact, and it was the biggest impact."
The company also confirmed that a "smaller unannounced premium game" had also been delayed out of this financial year and into the next. It joins a huge list of games delayed out of 2022 and into 2023 – primarily due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.