Avatar fans have been waiting a long time for a game worthy of the franchise, and the closest thing to it just got quietly killed.
Paramount revealed that the previously announced Avatar: The Last Airbender AAA game from Saber Interactive, the studio behind Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II, is no longer in development. The timing made it sting even more: the announcement came on a Friday evening, while players and press had their eyes on Summer Game Fest.
The game, which carried the working title Ice Wars, had been announced back in October 2024 with a projected 2027/2028 release window. It was shaping up to be something genuinely exciting for the Avatar community. The project would have focused on a previously unseen master of the four elements, set thousands of years before the events of the original series. At the time of its reveal, it was described as the largest video game in the franchise’s history, developed in close collaboration with Avatar Studios.
Paramount Confirms Avatar: The Last Airbender AAA RPG Is Canceled
Shawn Kittelsen, head of creative and production at the newly formed Paramount Games Studio, confirmed to IGN that the Avatar RPG was not in production when the new division was set up. The studio itself is the result of the 2025 Skydance-Paramount merger, which brought together multiple gaming teams under one roof.
When pressed on whether Avatar fans would ever see a AAA game, Kittelsen left the door open, barely. Paramount told IGN that a AAA Avatar game could still happen at some point, but it might arrive in a different form altogether. That’s a long way from the confident, franchise-defining game that was promised less than two years ago.
The cancellation reflects the broader instability gripping the gaming industry, where rising development costs, layoffs, and project shutdowns have become increasingly common over the past two years. Licensed AAA games in particular have become a tougher sell for publishers, and even beloved franchises aren’t immune.
Avatar fans do have other things to look forward to on the franchise front. Nickelodeon officially unveiled Avatar: Seven Havens in early 2025, a new sequel series starring the next Avatar after Korra, and Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender is set to debut in October 2026 as a sequel to the original series featuring the grown-up cast. Whether the gaming side of the franchise ever catches up remains very much an open question.
Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender premieres in October 2026.
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