12 years on since moviegoers were first transported to Pandora, the trailer for Avatar 2 –– officially titled Avatar: The Way Of Water –– was recently (finally) released. And while the narrative around this project had largely become one of exasperation and impatience, it’s now clear that excitement for the franchise hasn’t faded: A report at Collider revealed that first-day viewing figures for the sneak peek at the second instalment reached a staggering 148 million.
Given that number alone, it’s apparent that James Cameron’s fantasy epic is doing just fine with regard to marketing. The lengthy hiatus has not dampened enthusiasm, and it seems a virtual certainty that the December release will challenge box office records. At the same time though, one can’t help but be curious what sort of marketing campaign lies ahead –– and when we think about it, it’s hard not to hope that some gaming content is involved.
Granted, that wouldn’t be anything major (save for the standalone Ubisoft game Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora that’s in development). There isn’t much time between now and December for, say, AAA adventure titles to materialise. But in recent years we’ve seen plenty of smaller games aiding in the promotion of films and franchises. Browser-based arcade games, mobile apps and online casino slots in particular are increasingly used in this fashion, with studios and developers partnering to produce experiences that simultaneously entertain and advertise.
Games like these could yet come out to further drum up excitement for the return of the Avatar franchise. Some templates in particular could easily be taken advantage of:
Photography Arcade
One of Disney’s most beloved live-action franchises, Pirates Of The Caribbean famously drew its inspiration not from the worlds of literature or theatre, but from a ride at their California park that proved so popular it was replicated in Orlando, Paris, Tokyo and Shanghai. Similarly, at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, riders on the Na’vi River Journey ride spot native Pandora animals and bioluminescent plants on a simulated journey down the Kasvapan River. And it just so happens that this ride would seem to be an ideal template for a Pokémon Snap-style game –– that title being a first-person “on-rails” game in which you take a journey and try to capture creatures via photography. In an arcade take on the Na’vi River Journey, you could do the same with plants and animals from James Cameron’s fictional world –– particularly as we learn more (presumably from subsequent trailers and promotional material) about the specific environment Way Of Water will be set in.
Online Slot
In the UK, there’s a decades-long tradition of pub and arcade slot machines being licensed by favourites from the screen, big and small. Slots themed on franchises from Indiana Jones through Only Fools & Horses to The Simpsons have appeared in locals, seaside amusements and bingo halls. And as slot machines have moved online, that trend has continued. You’ll now find online slots based round everything from Hell’s Kitchen and The Chase to Beetlejuice –– not to mention James Cameron’s own Terminator films, and Avatar itself. It therefore isn’t hard at all to imagine a fresh digital slot machine based on Avatar: The Way Of Water –– likely designed in the same general fashion to the IGT game based on the original. That existing game draws on imagery and plot elements from Avatar, and even employs a fun sort of side game through which you battle a dreaded Banshee beast through your slot performance.
Slingo
A much newer game –– invented in New Jersey in 1996 –– Slingo is now an emerging category in online casinos, and has been tied into pop culture since its beginning. In a little less than 15 years from the game’s invention, there were Slingo computer, mobile and console games and even a TV game show. More recently, the move towards online play has taken Slingo into the gaming sites, where licensed games have quickly become firm favourites. Already, we’ve seen Slingo games advancing existing slot series (like Centurion and Starburst), and the Slingo titles at Foxy Bingo put forward a game based on the show Friends –– released in the run-up to the iconic turn-of-the-century sitcom being adopted by HBO (and producing a 2021 reunion special). As online gaming continues to expand, and Slingo continues to follow the path slots laid down before it, it makes sense that we’ll continue to see this gaming format used in promotional campaigns. The likes of The Way Of Water and subsequent Avatar sequels could well be poised to cash in.
Retro role-playing
If a full open-world RPG would be an impossibility in the six-ish months we have till Avatar: The Way Of Water debuts (and with the game style not being ideally suited for mobile either) then a turn-based RPG might make a lot of sense. Imagine being challenged to assemble a squad of Na’Vi –– the Sully family or the Metkayina reef clan, say –– and traverse through Pandora using turn-based combat to navigate encounters with enemies and hostile territory. And rest assured, the market for the JRPG genre that gave us such classics as Final Fantasy VII is as strong as ever: Since its 2015 release, Star Wars: Galaxy Of Heroes has welcomed over 80 million players worldwide. The viewing figures for the two-minute trailer for Avatar: The Way of Water suggest that a related app game built in a similar format would also be wildly popular.
The launch of the first trailer for Avatar: The Way Of Water will doubtless be the first move in an enormous PR campaign, and 20th Century Studios will be planning a blitz as December moves closer. We don’t know yet if games will be part of the package, but it wouldn’t be a surprise. And if that’s the case, titles like the ones we’ve theorised about here could well be in the running.
