Ubisoft played it safe at E3 2021 with Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, Riders Republic, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora headlining an otherwise quiet event.
In the spirit of keeping our readers up to date with what’s happening in the video game industry, the Doublejump Digest is a brief collection of the major news stories from the past week. Head over to our E3 2021 page for all of the articles about this year’s show!
MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENTS
Rainbow Six Quarantine is now Rainbow Six Extraction
Ubisoft Montreal kicked off the show by showing off more of Rainbow Six Siege’s 1-3 player cooperative PvE spinoff, Rainbow Six Extraction, fresh after its renaming last week.
The game takes place a few years after Siege’s Outbreak event and features three US locations: Alaska, New York, and San Francisco. The game will launch with 19 playable Operators: Alibi, Capitao, Doc, Ela, Finka, Fuse, Gridlock, Hibana, IQ, Jager, Lion, Nomad, Pulse, Rook, Sledge, Smoke, Tachanka, and Vigil will be playable at launch with others (only Ash and Thermite were shown) acting as non-playable guides.
Matches will consist of three stages and players can choose to “extract”
Rainbow Six Extraction is slated for a September 16 worldwide release Google Stadia, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
Yes, Riders Republic still exists and still looks great
Ubisoft Annecy has been hard at work at bolstering Riders Republic’s extreme sports utopia premise by upping the ante when it comes to visuals, event variety, and multiplayer capabilities.
Riders Republic is due out on September 2 on Google Stadia, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
Ubisoft details Rainbow Six Siege’s cross-play functionality
Ubisoft Montreal briefly explained it plans to roll-out cross-platform multiplayer in Rainbow Six Siege beginning with Amazon Luna, Google Stadia, and PC players getting cross-play and cross-progression on June 30 and Xbox-PlayStation connectivity due in “early 2022” alongside cross-progression on all platforms.
Ubisoft leaks then reveals Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
While it accidentally leaked the game’s existence earlier in the day, Ubisoft officially revealed a surprising sequel to 2017’s Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle in the form of Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope.
And yes, Rabbid Rosalina is joining Mario, Luigi, Peach, the Rabbids, and new friends called Sparks (think Rabbids meets Lumas) to take on a new villain named Cursa who wants nothing less than all the power in the universe.
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is scheduled for a 2022 release exclusively on Nintendo Switch.
Avatar is back and so are Ubisoft’s tie-in games
Just as it did for the original film, Ubisoft is working on a tie-in game for Avatar 2, but this time, we weren’t subjected to an hour-long James Cameron diatribe to find out about Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is slated for a 2022 release on Google Stadia, PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.
VIDEOS AND TRAILERS
Rocksmith+ — Launch Trailer
For its 10-year anniversary, Rocksmith is now a full-on guitar learning subscription service.
Rocksmith+ — Producer Interview
Arthur von Nagel waxes lyrical about Rocksmith+’s potential to change music learning.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege — I met a pilot
I want the bear to be an unlockable Operator.
JUST DANCE 2022 — Toddrick Hall Announce Trailer
Toddrick Hall’s latest song headlines the new Just Dance. I don’t know who he is, either.
Far Cry 6 — Meet the Villain: Antón
Giancarlo Esposito is bringing his A Game to this role. It’s a shame that the game itself looks very previous-gen.
Far Cry 6 — Become the Villain
We’ll get to play as Vaas Montenegro, Pagan Min and Joseph Seed in a special expansion pass offering including Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.
As you can see, Ubisoft’s E3 2021 showing was more subdued than those of previous years. Whether you blame it on the pandemic or blame it on the company’s cultural controversies, we really miss Ubisoft closing its annual E3 presentation with a lavishly awesome game reveal. Sorry, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
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