Frontiers of Pandora
There is a long list of “games that deserved better,” solid offerings that were killed by poor release dates, a lack of promotion, or both. And I think we may soon need to add Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora to that list.
Avatar is getting higher user scores than any Far Cry or Assassin’s Creed in recent memory, but has been almost erased from the gaming discourse, and it seems likely that sales are not amazing as a result. The game has been out less than two weeks, and its physical copies have already been put on sale with huge discounts.
From what I can tell, most retailers from Target to Amazon currently have the $70 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora on sale for 29% off, at $50. But if you go to Best Buy instead, the game is actually just $40, a full 42% off the original $70 price instead.
Frontiers of Pandora
It is…not exactly standard practice to see discounts this deep less than two weeks after a game’s release. I’m sure this is meant to move physical copies to be wrapped up as Christmas presents in a week, but it’s a very unusual move. This does, however, only include physical copies on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, the digital editions in console and PC stores are still $70. I’m not quite sure why that distinction is being made, but it is. And of course the game is available for “free” if you subscribe to Ubisoft Plus.
While this does not seem like great news for Ubisoft and developer Massive, it is of course good news for players, given that many of them may find the game is very fun, and now it’s two-thirds/almost half the price it was at launch. I am mildly annoyed I just paid full price for it a few days ago, but that was PC, so I guess that wouldn’t have mattered.
The game did not score terribly well among critics but again, player scores have been high and many people like it. I have played it for about a full day now, and while I think it has some of the most gorgeous environments I’ve ever seen in a game I…have found it a bit dull, personally. A reskinned Far Cry that is somewhat better than a normal Far Cry. Maybe. But not anything to go nuts about. For $40 though? Sure, I can probably recommend it at that price. Though if current trends continue, it may be even cheaper than that soon enough.
I don’t know what happened with this game. It needed more promotion from Ubisoft and a non-holiday release date so it wasn’t drowned by other high profile 2023 releases. We’ll see if we ever get any sales figures out of it.
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