Ubisoft's stewardship of Prince of Persia has had extraordinary highs, more than a few lows, and has often felt a little confused. The latter impression wasn't helped this year by the release of two distinct Prince of Persia side-scrollers within a few months of one another: The Rogue Prince of Persia, developed by Dead Cells support studio Evil Empire, and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, developed by Ubisoft Montpellier.
The Lost Crown released in early January, and was generally well-received (across platforms, it holds a handsome 86 on Metacritic). PCG's Mollie Taylor liked it well enough, but felt a poor opening dragged down the fantastic second half. But the critical reception didn't lead to high sales, and a new report from a report by French YouTuber Gautoz for Origami, subsequently confirmed by a Ubisoft statement, says the development team behind it has now been disbanded across other projects.
The Origami report says sales were way lower than expected, to the extent that the development team's pitch for a sequel was very quickly re-engineered into a pitch for two expansions instead. Ubisoft reportedly reasoned that a sequel would cannibalise the original's sales, which seems wacky.
Gautoz goes on to say that his sources on the team described an excellent production experience, later adding on X that "I heard or read 'the best production of my life' three or four times in one weekend about the development of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Alternately a hope for another way of creating and a rehabilitation zone for people burned out by Beyond Good & Evil 2, the team was disbanded by Ubisoft."
Ubisoft has issued a statement to Eurogamer from the Lost Crown's senior producer that essentially confirms this version of events.
"I'm extremely proud of our team's work and passion at Ubisoft Montpellier to create a game that resonated with players and critics alike, and I am confident in its long-term success," said Abdelhak Elguess.
"Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is now at the end of its Post-Launch roadmap with three free content updates and one DLC that released in September. We are now focusing on making the game available to more players: it was recently launched on Steam, and will be available on Mac by this winter.
"Most of the team members who worked on Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown have shifted to other projects that will benefit from their expertise. We know players have a love for this brand and Ubisoft is excited to bring more Prince of Persia experiences in the future."
It is somehow very Ubisoft that, after putting together a relatively small team which has produced a great Prince of Persia, it seems to have panicked at the initial sales and just abandoned its strong new direction for the series altogether.
There is, sadly, no Prince to say "wait, that's not how it happened" and rewind time to fix any mistakes. There's no word of what projects the team members have been moved onto, though Ubisoft Montpellier continues to work on the mythical Beyond Good & Evil 2. Lord knows what's going on with that production.
As for Prince of Persia and Ubisoft, The Sands of Time still looms large over the series history, not least because of the protracted and seemingly chaotic development of a remake that is now, incredibly, due in 2026. Oh, and it no longer has "remake" in the title. As for the Lost Crown, Ubisoft hopes it can enjoy a long tail as it comes to Steam and slowly reaches more players. Still, that team and that scale could have done a lot more with the series than produce one very good dead end.
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