Ubisoft's E3 2009 press conference today included an on-stage appearance by massive movie director James Cameron who told the audience about his upcoming new sci-fi epic Avatar. The movie is due out this December but Ubisoft, in collaboration with Cameron, is developing a Avatar game that is set in the same universe but tells a different story than the movie.

Cameron admitted that most movie-to-game adaptations "suck" and that he wanted to avoid the same fate with Avatar, which is set on an alien world where humans communicate with the intelligent native race through live "avatars"; a real hybrid of human and alien that can live on the planet but is controlled by humans via an advanced form of technology. Cameron said that Ubisoft's game became a true partnership; weapons and units in the movie that were cut are used in the game and sometimes things made first for the game made their way into the movie.

While Cameron talked at length about the game and film during the press conference (he said the final battle at the end of the movie will be "the mother of all battles") no actual footage from either movie or game was shown. However we expect to see a build of Avatar this week at E3. Before Cameron came on stage it was mentioned that Ubisoft's own visual effect department have created over 100 effect shots for the Avatar movie.