Avatar And Hellblade Missing Summer Game Fest Was A Huge Waste
Back in December 2021, I wrote that 2022 was going to be a year for the record books. In December 2021, I was an idiot. While this looked set to be a banner year for video games, a slew of cancellations (in part caused by fear of repeating the mistakes of Cyberpunk 2077) has seen 2022 look, if not empty, then downright average. Despite a large number of major dropouts - Breath of the Wild 2 and Starfield will now challenge for GOTY 2023 - 2022 could still recover, but the dark horses ready to step into the race have gone quiet. The field is wide open, and yet Avatar and Hellblade are nowhere to be seen. What gives?
Both have vague dates of ‘2022’ and as we reach the year’s halfway point, it feels like they should have nailed down their starting spot by now. It could be that they’re both waiting on Ragnarok’s launch date so they can slot in between Hogwarts and God of War, but you’d at least think they would have made an appearance by now. Hellblade 2 had the longest gameplay demo at The Game Awards back in December when I was young and stupid, while Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora was one of the surprise reveals of E3 2021. This was way before we saw the trailer for The Way of Water, and therefore before we really believed that more Avatar movies would ever arrive.
Related: Here's Everything We Didn't See At Summer Game Fest 2022
Neither game has been heard from since. Hellblade is one of Xbox’s most interesting exclusives, and it fits the company’s image of backing smaller teams to big effects. While Sony brags about development teams of 2,000, Xbox croons about how a team of five using crayons and rocks can build a triple-A experience too. Xbox had not one, but two major showcases at Summer Game Fest. We had a long
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