This past week, Ubisoft made a major announcement, confirming thatThe Division 2developer Massive Entertainment was now working on an open-worldStar Warsproject. It was confirmation that Disney’s exclusivity contract with Electronic Arts would be ending, leading to moreStar Warsgames year to year. There was just one lingering question: What would happen to Massive’s previously announcedAvatargame? It turns out that nothing would happen, as bothAvatarandStar Warsgames remain in development.
As part of the announcement ofUbisoft’s in-developmentStar Warsgame, the publisher released an interview with Massive’s managing director David Polfeldt. Polfeldt was asked specifically about Massive taking on the development of two different games from two different major franchises. While Polfeldt doesn’t directly address the state of theAvatarproject’s ongoing development, he does acknowledge that Massive continues to work onAvataralongsideStar Warsas an equal focus.
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No details were provided regarding how Massive plans to tackle two major projects at one time. Its released two games in the past 6 years, those beingTom Clancy’s The Divisionandits sequelThe Division 2. Though to call it a one-project studio wouldn’t be accurate, seeing as it supportedThe Divisionvia post-launch content while also working onThe Division 2. It’s possible that this strategy has led to do different development teams within the company, or that Ubisoft is outsourcing work to other internal studios.
Regardless of how the two games are being developed at Massive, neither project is likely to be coming any time soon. TheStar Warsproject was only confirmed yesterday and is likely years away from coming to fruition. As for theAvatarproject, the last news that was shared about it confirmed that development had been delayed and that a 2022 launch would be the earliest it would arrive.
Given the relatively delayed release windows for each game,Massivewill have plenty of time to share details regarding the studio’s growth and arrangement so that it can support two different games' development. Nevermind thatThe Division 2remains actively supported by the studio as well. Plus, it’s not just that Massive is working on two games that’s interesting, but that it’s working on two very large games based on two very popular IPs.
Massive’sAvatarproject was originally announced in 2017, developed in partnership with James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment. It, like theStar Warsproject, is being made in Massive’s Snowdrop engine. More information aboutMassive’sAvatarprojectwill hopefully be shared sooner rather than later.
