Avatar Legends delays its Xbox version hours before launch

The Xbox version of Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game has been delayed to September and the Nintendo Switch version will launch without cross-play, the game's X account announced roughly 13 hours before release. The PlayStation 5 and Windows PC versions are unaffected.

What Switch players get at launch

Only the Standard Edition is available on Switch at launch, according to Polygon. The Deluxe Edition, which bundles a digital art book, the original soundtrack and the Year 1 Pass covering DLC characters, is not part of that release. The Switch version is also localized only in English. Polygon reported that the team hopes to address both gaps in the future.

The combination matters for a fighting game more than for most genres, because a smaller launch population thins out matchmaking. Removing the Xbox audience for six weeks and launching the Switch version without cross-play compounds that.

Xbox is a familiar omission in the genre. Polygon pointed to Guilty Gear Strive, which took a further two years to reach the console, and to the Sony-published Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, which is launching on PlayStation 5 and PC only. What sets this case apart is the timing, with the change announced on the eve of release rather than months out.

A tight run-up to release

Polygon reported that three of the game's 12 characters received significant animation and gameplay reworks during the review period, and that Ozai still carried placeholder animations in the final pre-release build before a major rework shortly before launch.

In an interview with YouTuber Maximilian Dood, the developers said Avatar Aang and Nightmare Korra, alternate versions of the two protagonists with their own moves, will receive further work after release.

The launch date lines up with the new Avatar film, Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, which released the same day.