Ubisoft recently revealed its Q3 earnings for the 2021 fiscal year, noting it to be the strongest single quarter in the company’s history. In the subsequent conference call, it discussed upcoming titles and strategies, revealing more details on Tom Clancy’s The Division 2. Despite developer Ubisoft Massive working on its untitled Avatar title and an open world Star Wars game, it will support its looter shooter for a while yet.

As noted by Niko Partners senior analyst Daniel Ahmad on Twitter, Massive will work on new content for The Division 2 in 2021 and 2022. The last major content drop added The Summit, a 100 story skyscraper with varying challenges. Interestingly enough, it seems that the studio’s Avatar title is next to release and launches before its Star Wars game.

In somewhat less surprising news, the upcoming Star Wars title will be built on Massive’s Snowdrop Engine. This could further point to it being a third person shooter much like The Division but we’ll have to wait for more details. The Division 2 is currently available for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Google Stadia, and recently received enhancements for Xbox Series X/S and PS5.

– Ubisoft says that it will build its new Star Wars game on the Snowdrop Engine.

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) February 9, 2021

Regarding Ubisoft Massive.

The team will work on new content for The Division in 2021 and 2022.

Their Avatar game will release prior to the new Star Wars game that they are working on.

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) February 9, 2021

Even with the monumental rise of the Marvel brand in theaters, the Avengers weren’t strong enough to take down one foe. I’m not talking Thanos, I’m talking James Cameron. His film, Avatar, remains the highest grossing film of all time and was, for a time, a bit of a cultural phenomena. It’s since died down and with the film’s sequels seemingly being pushed back further and further, who knows when we’ll see them. You may not remember (and who could blame you if you didn’t at this point), but there was also a big budget game announced based on the film being developed by Ubisoft. And it’s still coming, apparently.

The official Avatar Twitter account took a question from someone who wanted to know if the game was still being made. After a long time of radio silence, a lot of people were wondering. But they confirmed that it was still coming, though not much else.

To be fair to Ubisoft, they did say not to expect the game until at least the 2021 fiscal year (which would be after April 1st 2020), but that also was over a year ago itself and since then the name Avatar hasn’t even been mentioned. But apparently it’s just like the film’s sequels: it’s just going to take some time. At least we know it hasn’t been canceled.

Still being developed! https://t.co/vdWvzyNZEQ

— Avatar (@officialavatar) November 29, 2019

When Ubisoft Massive confirmed that The Division 2 was in development, there was some caution, a bit of elation and plenty of anticipation as to what could be revealed. Others wondered though – what happened to the developer’s unnamed Avatar game?

It’s still in development but don’t expect it to release any time soon. According to a Ubisoft representative that spoke to IGN, the game will arrive after the fiscal year 2021 (starting on April 1st 2020).

“Avatar is one of the biggest and most powerful entertainment brands…we have great plans for the new one, with a very strong studio and engine. The movie will be released end of 2020, so our game won’t be released before FY21.”

With Avatar 2 releasing in December 2020 at the latest, it wouldn’t be all that odd to assume the game arriving around the same time a la DICE’s Star Wars Battlefront and The Force Awakens. That ultimately led to an underwhelming launch so hopefully Ubisoft Massive avoids the same issues.

Unlike James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game from 2009, the new Avatar will be on a larger scale. It’s being developed by Ubisoft Massive and Ubisoft Stockholm, the latter led by former EA DICE head Patrick Bach.

This month there have been a huge amount of additions to the Xbox Live Avatar Marketplace.  You can now purchase newly added items that have been made available from September 22nd to the 29th.

You can check out all the new items from your Xbox 360 or right on the Avatar Marketplace section of Xbox.com.  This month also brought us new Avatar Marketplace items for Modern Warfare 3, Crimson Alliance, Renegade Ops and Gears of War 3.

Xbox Live users can now purchase the Russian Spec Ops uniform for their avatar from Modern Warfare 3.  So yet another military outfit you can add to your collection, which if you are an avatar purchasing addict, I am sure you’ll want.  However, for more conservative gamers that don’t feel the need to pour money into the massive Microsoft wallet, you might want to hold off on spending that 400 Points.  The Hardened Edition of Modern Warfare 3 includes a Juggernaut Avatar suit with it.

Also available in the Modern Warfare 3 Avatar Marketplace are MW3 Shirts, Hoodies, Hat, American Scuba Spec Ops Out, as well as French, and British Special Forces Uniforms.  All uniforms are 400 Microsoft Points, all shirts/hat are 80 Points while the Hoodie is 160 Microsoft Points.  All of the Avatar items have male and female version except of course for the unisex Hat.

We don’t know if these are all the Avatar Awards you can unlock in Gears of War 3 but here are some of them at least.  One is a shirt that says “For the Horde”, which I think is pretty obvious what you have to play to unlock that, it is obtained when you unlock the “Welcome to the Horde” achievement.  The other two are a Locust Drone Mask and a Marcus doo-rag.  The mask is unlocked when you get the “Welcome to the Beast Mode” achievement and the doo-rag will unlock from beating the game.  Don’t forget about all Gears Giveaway Month.  The game is out on September 20th for the Xbox 360.

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Remember when people would go to a party and hand out play games… well WE DON’T HAVE TO DO THAT ANYMORE!  It’s all thanks to Avatar Kinect, you see your neat little Kinect device recognizes your facial expressions, then putting them on  your avatar, allowing groups of users to sit around chatting in 24 themed virtual environments.  You can relax and chat with friends, make your own movies that can then be uploaded to KinectShare.com and downloaded to your computer, where you can then post it up on places like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more.

The software is from FUNLABS and is free but only to Gol Xbox Live Subscribers.  Luckily Silver Members have until September 8th to download it.. so get to it!

Microsoft are running tests in an effort to improve Xbox Live and are giving you a chance to be a lab rat.  You can sign up to take part in the ‘Xbox Live Lab Tests’ which will leave you unable to participate in Xbox LIVE activities including gaming, watching movies or downloading music, while running Xbox LIVE Labs, oh yeah and your Internet connectivity might just slow down. All this for a few Avatar items including a lab coat, brain helmet, and crazy mad scientist hair. Sorry but that is not enough for me to basically put my Xbox 360 in a dormant state.

Xbox LIVE Labs is only available to residents of the United States and will run from March 10th though March 27th. There is a bunch of games coming out during that time span, including Homefront and Crysis 2. If you want to participate in it, sign into Xbox LIVE and head over to the community channel where you’ll see the Xbox LIVE Labs panel. Click on it to download the testing app and then load it up to get your avatar stuff while you cannot do anything on your Xbox but I hear you can stop it and go back.

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Xbox Avatar Awards

Playstation 3 Avatars

Rockstar wants you to get back to Red Dead Redemption as they are having an XP challenge for who can meet the total XP set first; Xbox 360 or Playstation 3.  Right now it is tied up.  Attaning the amount of XP need will unlock the Gentleman’s Attire/Ladies Attire and a Crimson Posse T-shirt for your Xbox Avatar or PS Home Avatar.  You can view each consoles progress here and here is what Rockstar has to say about the event:

Now at CES 2011, Microsoft’s Key Note Speech included facial recognition will be coming this spring for free as an update for all Xbox Live Gold members.  ‘Avatar Kinect’ is explained to be “a new way to socialize on Xbox Live” and will include 15 stages.  Watch the video above to get some more insight on it.