Tag: Avatar

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Avatar: The Way of Water digital release arrives March 28th

James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water is a bonafide box office success. After becoming the third-highest-grossing film of all time, the sequel to the 2009 sensation is getting a digital release this month.

On March 28th, the Avatar sequel will be available to purchase digitally. Paid downloads of Avatar: The Way of Water will be available across platforms such as Prime Video, Apple TV, Microsoft Films & TV, and more.

The Avatar sequel was helmed by James Cameron, who also directed the original film. Alongside Cameron, the film was written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. The movie stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, and more.

Avatar: The Way of Water is also arriving digitally with a ton of extras. In fact, there is over the same amount of bonus content as the nearly three-hour movie. Fans of the film can watch a feature on how Cameron and his crew created the world of Pandora, its creatures, and its environments. Fans can also look forward to learning more about how the stunt team used a performance tank for the many underwater sequences.

The bonus footage also spotlights the FX of the film. Using Wētā FX, Cameron and his team created uncanny facial performances, environments, and never-before-seen creatures. There are also spotlight features dedicated to the returning cast as well as the new generation of Avatar stars, including Britain Dalton, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, and Jack Champion.

Avatar: The Way of Water was released theatrically on December 15th, 2023. It has since reaped a global box office of $2.28 billion. Cameron’s franchise now holds two of the three top-grossing spots. Avatar sits at the number one spot with a box office of $2.9 billion. Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame is the third with $2.79 billion at the box office.

Currently, there’s no word on when a Bluray release nor Disney+ streaming option will be available.

Image credit: Disney

Source: Gizmodo

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Mobile Syrup

Pre-registration now open for Avatar Generations mobile game ahead of early 2023 launch

Square Enix has confirmed that pre-registration is now open for its Avatar: Generations mobile game ahead of a planned “early 2023” launch window.

This comes after a soft launch of the game in select markets, including Canada, last August.

Developed by the company’s London mobile team in partnership with Vancouver’s Navigator Games (Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast), Avatar Generations is a free-to-play RPG set in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender. 

At launch, the game will retell Aang’s story from the Nickelodeon’s beloved animated series, with additional content updates adding chapters centred around The Legend of Korra and other characters.

You’ll be able to assemble a team of familiar faces, including Aang, Katara and Sokka, and face off in turn-based combat. Each character will have their own unique skills and progression paths.

You can pre-register for the game via the official website (iOS) and Play Store (Android).

Image credit: Square Enix

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Mobile Syrup

Ubisoft delays Skull and Bones for the sixth time, cancels three more games

Skull and Bones has been delayed for a staggering sixth time, Ubisoft has confirmed.

The open-world pirate game was most recently set to release on March 9th, 2023, but Ubisoft says it’s now simply slated to come sometime between now and early 2024.

The move comes amid a turbulent period for the French publishing giant. In a press release, Ubisoft acknowledged that it’s facing “major challenges,” including the cancellation of three unannounced games on top of the four it had axed last year.

The company also noted that its 2022 games — an unusually soft lineup that lacked new releases from such big franchises as Assassin’s Creed or Far Cry — “have not performed as well as expected.” Specifically, it points to the commercial underperformance of last fall’s otherwise well-received Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope and Just Dance 2023, the latter of which being the latest entry in a historically popular annualized franchise.

As a result, the company is projecting a $537 million USD (about $721 million CAD) loss for the fiscal year ending in March 2023. This has led it to cut around $215 million USD (about $289 million CAD) in costs. According to Kotaku, these cost-cutting efforts include layoffs and renewing fewer contracts at some of the company’s U.S. locations. It’s unclear how this might affect any of the publisher’s many Canadian studios, including Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Toronto.

Ubisoft’s rough patch, in part, stems from its ever-evolving production pipeline. Over the past few years, the company has been pivoting towards live service titles that continue to bring in players over long periods. One of its older games, 2015’s Rainbow Six: Siege, has been one of the most popular multiplayer games on the market, with over 70 million registered players.

While the company has still released some big-budget single-player games in the form of 2018’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, 2020’s Watch Dogs: Legion and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and 2021’s Far Cry 6, it’s been putting more of an emphasis on live service titles. This includes Assassin’s Creed Infinity, a future live service platform for multiple Assassin’s Creed games. Ubisoft even says it will be “the single entry point for fans into the Assassin’s Creed franchise in the future.”

Other Ubisoft live service games in the works include the arena shooter XDefiant and The Division Heartland. Meanwhile, it’s cancelled other online titles like Hyperscape and Ghost Recon Frontline. 

For now, though, the company said in an emergency investor call, via Kotaku, that its release plans for the fiscal year beginning in April 2023 include Skull and Bones, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Assassin’s Creed Mirage and at least one more big unannounced title.

Source: Ubisoft

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Mobile Syrup

Where to stream James Cameron’s Avatar in Canada before The Way of Water

Thirteen years after the release of Avatar, James Cameron is finally back with a sequel, The Way of Water.

It’s the first of the Canadian filmmaker’s four planned follow-ups to the highest-grossing movie of all time, and it’s set to be a massive blockbuster. While it remains to be seen how well it will perform, given its debatable lack of cultural relevance and the long gap between the previous film, it’s gotten rave reviews following its December 6th premiere.

Speaking of how long it’s been since that first film, though, you might have forgotten much of it or simply want to revisit Cameron’s world of Pandora. With that in mind, you can stream it on Disney+ Canada. The movie was temporarily removed from the service as part of a limited 4K theatrical re-release in September, but it’s since returned on time for The Way of Water.

The Way of Water will open in theatres on December 16th.

Do you like Avatar? Are you excited for The Way of Water? Let us know in the comments.

Image credit: 20th Century Studios

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Mobile Syrup

Snapchat’s Avatar face filter isn’t quite movie quality….

Snapchat, never one to miss a trend, is hopping aboard the Avatar: The Way of Water hype train with a full Na’vi face filter.

The filter works great, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the same tech James Cameron is using in the next Avatar movies since the ears, eyes and nose look like an Avatar, but the rest looks like a painted blue human face.

The face filter should be located within your Snapchat carousel, but mine was buried far in, so you might have to scroll for a while to find it. That said, it’s pretty funny and looks slightly better than expected.

Snapchat is available on iOS and Android.

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Mobile Syrup

Avatar: The Way of Water uses crazy tech, but does it look better or worse?

James Cameron has been hyping up his Avatar saga a lot lately, but the more I watch the trailers for Avatar: The Way of Water, the less I believe this movie will break as many boundaries as the first.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an Avatar hater. I enjoyed the first movie and loved how it pushed the special effects and CGI industry. The overarching plot was trite, but the world, the action and the intense filmmaking drew me in.

As the trailers for The Way of Water have been released, I’ve realized I expected the movie to look nearly as good as real life, and while it’s still visually impressive, some characters have crossed into the uncanny valley.

Several shots are outstanding, and there’s no denying that the water physics are top-notch. Even the reflective properties of water seem to be taken into account in this film, albeit there’s maybe a little too much on characters’ skin. The environment is also stunning, with realistic rocks, foliage and shadows.

But the characters’ faces are undeniably bizarre. I don’t want to call them unnatural because the problem is that they look too natural, in some respects. The human elements shine through more clearly in The Way of Water, and while it might help the actors relay a more believable digital performance, it seems too much like a human, which adds an odd aura to the film. There’s something about how the jaw structure seems to be the same as the real actors, making them appear less cat-like than in the first film.

Beyond that, The Way of the Water‘s story focuses more on the family and children of the main characters from the first film. These younger Na’vi have less pronounced facial features, making their cat-esque noses look even more human, breaking the effect. Perhaps I’m reading too much into it, but this beautiful CG world feels broken by a human face peering through the CGI makeup.

In a recent interview with GQ, The Way of Water director says that his team used a variety of cameras to film the actors performing the motions to get actual real-life movement and human interactions. That footage was then handed off to effects company Wētā to paint the world on top of. It’s an interesting approach and has reportedly resulted in The Way of Water becoming one of the most expensive movies ever made.

I’m sure once it hits theatres, the film will hold up and look great, but with all the hype surrounding the next generation of Avatar films, it has a lot to live up to.

Image credit: 20th Century Fox

Source: Avatar Via: GQ

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Entertainment

The trailer for Avatar 2 is out, and it’s amazing!

The trailer of the next Avatar, The Way of Waters absolutely amazing because of the underwater images and the sublime beauty of Pandora.

This new trailer has been released by 20th Century Studios, which will present the highly anticipated sequel to the first Avatar, released in 2009.

If the first movie was mainly set on the lands of Pandora, the next one will feature a lot of underwater sequences, as we can see in the trailer.

The story takes place ten years later, as the story of Jake and Neytiri and their children is told.

The synopsis for the film reads, “Of the problems that follow them, the efforts they make to protect each other, the battles they fight to stay alive and the tragedies they endure.”

The film will hit theaters on December 16, and let’s note that Kate Winslet is in the cast, in addition to the returns of Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang!

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Mobile Syrup

Google acquired AI avatar startup Alter for $100 million to take on TikTok

Google has been in and out of the news in recent months over its efforts to reduce costs by shuttering moonshot projects like Area 120 or the Pixelbook line (although the latter arguably wasn’t a moonshot). However, those efforts apparently don’t include spending millions on an avatar startup.

Per TechCrunch, Google acquired Alter, a startup that built an artificial intelligence (AI) avatar tool to help creators and brands express their virtual identities. A source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that Google bought Alter for about $100 million USD (roughly $136.3 million CAD).

Moreover, both Alter and Google kept the acquisition under wraps. TechCrunch says the acquisition was completed about two months ago, and neither company made a public disclosure, although some Alter executives updated their LinkedIn profiles to share that they joined Google. A Google spokesperson confirmed the acquisition to TechCrunch, but wouldn’t discuss the financial terms of the deal.

The source told TechCrunch that Google plans to use Alter to improve and ramp up its content offerings, particularly to help Google better compete with TikTok.

Alter, previously called Facemoji, started as a platform offering plug-and-play tech to help game and app developers put avatar systems into apps. The startup received $3 million USD (about $4 million CAD) from investors including Twitter, Play Ventures, and Roosh Ventures.

Image credit: @Alter

Source: TechCrunch

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Mobile Syrup

Ubisoft delays Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora to April 2023 at the very least

Ubisoft has announced that it has delayed Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. The first-person shooter set in the Avatar universe is now due to launch during the company’s 2023-2024 fiscal year.

The delay comes as part of Ubisoft’s Q1 earnings report. The shuffling of release now places the launch of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora in April 2023 at the very earliest. The game was first revealed by Ubisoft last year. Ubisoft Massive, the team behind The Division is leading development. Its initial 2022 release would have aligned nicely with James Cameron’s Avatar: the Way of Watch. The sequel film releases in theatres on December 16th.

“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,” the company says.

Ubisoft did not offer any reasoning behind the delay of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. However, it is not the only game to now fall into 2023. Ubisoft confirms another “smaller unannounced premium game” is also exiting this fiscal year and into the next.

The news doesn’t stop there. Ubisoft is also reportedly cancelling the development of its planned Splinter Cell VR title. Ghost Recon Frontline, a 100-player battle royale title will no longer release either. Plus, two other unannounced games are no longer moving forward. The former Splinter Cell VR title was being developed in partnership with Meta and was to be exclusive to Meta headsets.

Ubisoft’s latest round of news undoubtedly reflects what many other studios are experiencing. Given the tumultuous development cycles during the COVID-19 pandemic, releases frequently alter and plans don’t pan out as intended. Although delays are never easy to swallow for fans, the hope is that the studio can take the extra time to refine the game.

Image credit: Ubisoft

Source: Ubisoft Via: IGN

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Mobile Syrup

Disney releases official Avatar 2 trailer online

The first official trailer for the long-awaited Avatar sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, has been released online.

The trailer for The Way of Water made its debut over the weekend in theatres exclusively with screenings of fellow Disney film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but now, it’s being made available on the web for everyone.

The trailer features a lot of miscellaneous shots without much dialogue, so you may not glean too much about the actual story. Here’s the official synopsis, for reference:

“Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, “Avatar: The Way of Water” begins to tell the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure.”

Canada’s own James Cameron has returned to direct and co-writer The Way of Water, and it’s the first of four sequels he’s currently working on. The Way of Water will hit theatres this December, with its three untitled sequels dropping in December 2024, December 2026 and December 2028, respectively.

Cameron’s original Avatar opened in theatres way back in December 2009. The film is streaming on Disney+ in Canada.

Image credit: 20th Century Studios