The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake has now been subject to multiple delays, with a fairly confident release date being pushed into 2022 until Ubisoft came along and postponed the game indefinitely. Even worse is that Ubisoft Mumbai and Ubisoft Pune have now been pulled off the project completely as the parent company takes a look at the progress made thus far and what can seemingly be done to salvage it.
Fans weren’t especially thrilled with the initial screenshots and footage of the revival when it was first announced last year, resulting in the first expected delay, but part of me is scratching my head when trying to think what exactly has doomed this game’s development to further misfortune. It’s a remake of a popular PS2 game with a focus on combat and parkour – much like Assassin’s Creed – so something must have gone seriously wrong for it to so spectacularly fall apart. Like seriously, what happened?
Remakes and remasters have become a common part of our gaming landscape. Investing in new ideas and properties pose substantial risk, so publishers with a decent collection of classic games under their belts opt to revive already beloved games and capitalise on nostalgia instead of breaking the bank on something more. Of course there are exceptions in the form of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, or remasters proving so popular that fully-fledged sequels are produced in the aftermath such as Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time.
This well of existing brilliance will eventually run dry, or we’ll enter a perpetual cycle of pumping out definitive editions until the climate crisis finally engulfs us all. Time will tell, but even as someone who can’t help but feel cynical about this industry’s continued reliance on recognition, I was looking forward to revisiting Prince of Persia for the first time in decades. But somehow, the act of remaking this sixth generation classic has been met with countless obstacles and public shaming of a studio probably trying its best to fix a bad situation.
Ubisoft is huge, with thousands of people working on games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Far Cry 6 as a conscious effort is made to pump them full of so much content that only the most dedicated of players will see everything they have to offer. It’s a matter of quantity over quality, with the company slowly adapting to a live service model that will soon engulf the majority of its major franchises. That’s where it sees the future going, alongside a knowing investment in the metaverse and blockchain technology.
Part of me worries that the act of producing a relatively simple remake was overcomplicated, or someone higher up the totem pole is demanding the product include new features, ideas, or bonuses that aren’t befitting of what should really be quite a cut and dry experience. I know that the first delay was a direct response to lacklustre visuals, but there has to be something more occurring behind the curtain that we aren’t aware of for development to move to a new studio entirely. It’s not normal, and I feel for the teams at Ubisoft Mumbai and Pune who have spent several years on this project only to be left out in the cold. Back to making plants for the next Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry as a support studio I guess.
I’ll stop playing armchair game developer now, but there remains an element of tragedy to a remake of one of Ubisoft’s most beloved games being lost in limbo due to production troubles that could have been avoidable. Imagine if this went smoother and was the start of an entire trilogy revival, with Warrior Within and Two Thrones followed in the footsteps left behind by Sands of Time. They are all distinct, edgy, and wonderful products of their time that would be met with welcome arms in 2022. Or 2028 judging by how many delays this damn thing has been subject to.
I just hope the folks working on this game are holding up okay, and their work eventually sees the light of day and fans fall in love with this series all over again. Ubisoft please just sort yourselves out, it’s starting to get a little sad.
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