Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is Ubisoft's first $70, possibly digital-only game

The Ubisoft Forward event opened with Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, which will now be the developer's first $70 title. 

Previously, Ubisoft said that it would follow the current price trend with the release of its pirate game, Skull & Bones. But that was last year, when Skull was set to come out in November 2022. 

With a December 7 release date so close to the holidays, that price point may affect its performance. By Ubisoft's own admission earlier this year, the 2022 holiday season was a rocky period for the company that resulted in three unannounced projects getting canceled.  

Further complicating matters is that Frontiers of Pandora may be also be the studio's first digital-only product. The game's store page on Ubisoft's website only lists digital editions on PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X|S. 

At time of writing, retailers such as GameStop and Best Buy don't have the December 7 title listed on their websites. 

Should Frontiers be a solely digital game, it'll be the first from Ubisoft. Back in May, Remedy Entertainment announced its upcoming game, Alan Wake II, would be solely digital to avoid an additional price hike on players. 

Thus far, games largely from smaller developers (read: non double/triple-A studios) have forgone physical releases. Larger developers following this trend will substantially change how players, and which players, are able to play video games.

Games on a scale as grand as Ubisoft's are often quite big in terms of file size. So for those with limited or spotty internet connections, a strictly digital release will hit them the hardest. 

And as the soon-to-be delisted Soul Calibur V shows, getting eventually taken off digital stores will be a blow to game preservation efforts.

Ubisoft's upcoming 2023 game, Assassin's Creed Mirage, will be priced at $50 when it releases on October 12. It could be that Ubisoft plans to experiment with price points depending a game's size or what priority it takes as a premium or mid-size title.