A year without major releases from Electronic Arts, Avatar being the dark horse of Ubisoft?. 2022 in games industry - our predictions

February 9, 2022

A year without major releases from Electronic Arts, Avatar being the dark horse of Ubisoft?

Regardless of whether it's due to pandemic complications or other reasons, everything indicates that in 2022, two major players, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft, might not bring any buffy AAAs to the table. The main announcements of the French studio are so far only minor titles or expansions. In the case of EA, we can at least be sure of new reheated installments of their sports series. What will we get exactly?

Electronic Arts – a round of golf... And?

Grid Legends may be the most original title from Electronic Arts this year.

So far, the announcements of Electronic Arts are not particularly exciting. We should get GRID Legends in the first half of the year, but in the era of Forzy Horizon 5 and the upcoming Gran Turismo 7, the interest in the new GRID does not seem particularly high. The second title will be the PGA Tour, the return of golf to the list of sports games from EA. It's generally a famous brand from the past, but its importance today is much smaller than it used to be. And probably not counting the next installments of FIF, NHL, Madden or F1, the announcements from Electronic Arts end here. There is still the new Dead Space, but first – it's a remake of a game we know well, and two – the release date is not even approximately known.

Quo vadis, Battlefield 2042?

2022 may be decisive for the future of Battlefield 2042. The creators generally have two paths to take. Either fix key issues and start adding fun content on a regular basis. We have already seen something like that in the case of Battlefield 4, which started in a deplorable state, and eventually became one of the best installments of the entire series. Or they could abandon the development of the game altogether, as was the case with Battlefield 5, but considering that this time DICE probably does not have another project almost ready, it will likely try to save its flagship title.

Ubisoft – will we return to Pandora?

Ubisoft kicked 2022 off with the co-op shooter Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Extraction, coming after multiple delays. However, this was not a title that was especially anticipated by the players. The popularity and quality of the game can also be worrying for the publisher. Shortly before the release, we found out that the new R6 will be available on the day of its premiere in Xbox Game Pass subscription. This was quite a surprising decision, but it showed the power of the combined subscriptions of Microsoft and Electronic Arts. For a co-op game, general availability and a large player base can do more than positive reviews.

In addition to Extraction, Ubisoft's plans also include Tom Clancy's XDefiant and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Frontline. Both of these games, however, aroused mixed feelings and it is not known whether they will be released at all. What is certain is the expansion to Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Dawn of Ragnarok. It's true that it's supposed to be a huge DLC, costing adequately much, and giving you the opportunity to spend dozens of hours more in the world of assassins, but huge size is already standard in Ubisoft's games and we can rather expect more of the same thing. So it is hard to consider Dawn of Ragnarok as a great, exciting release. This is probably what Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is supposed to be at the end of the year.

Is there going to be a premiere of Ubisoft's Avatar?

The only question is whether the release of Avatar will actually happen? There are many potential obstacles – from internal troubles at Ubisoft, which partly translates into further delays, to the still ongoing pandemic. The promotion of the game will probably be closely related to the premiere of the film, scheduled for December 16, 2022, but taking into account the dynamically changing pandemic situation, neither the film's release nor the appearance of the game are 100% certain for the time being. It's also going to be interesting to see how the new Avatar will be received, since the original was successful mostly to 3-D gimmickry, rather than a particularly good story, cast, or sci-fi atmosphere similar to Cameron's older output. In the era of widely available VR goggles, there will be a need for more than just cinematic bells and whistles.