Hey, remember that Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake Ubisoft announced back in 2020? The one it’s delayed twice, and that has switched developers at least once? Well, it turns out that at some point after the switch to a new studio development on the remake completely restarted, which makes it sound like the new(-ish) adventure is years away from release.
Announced in September 2020, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake was planned to launch in 2021 with improved visuals compared to 2003’s original game. Development on the remake was at first led by Ubisoft Pune with assistance from Ubisoft Mumbai. However, in December 2020 the game was delayed until March 2021. Then in February 2021, the remake was delayed indefinitely. And then in May 2022, a year ago, Ubisoft announced that Ubisoft Montréal—the original studio behind the classic Sands of Time trilogy—was taking over the project. At the time it sounded like they were building off the work already done by Pune and Mumbai. But now…well, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
On May 24, Ubisoft quietly revealed in a newly updated Prince of Persia FAQ that development on the project has seemingly started completely over, writing that that game—which was supposed to be out in 2021—is now in the “conception phase.” The studio is also apparently “building up the team” that will develop the game while working on early prototypes of it. That all seems to imply that the original remake was mostly or even completely tossed out and Ubisoft Montréal has gone back to the drawing board to start over.
Here’s Ubisoft’s full statement from the FAQ page:
With Ubisoft Montréal taking over the development of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, the game is currently in the conception phase. As part of this early stage of development the studio is building up the team, defining priorities, developing prototypes, and testing gameplay elements.
Kotaku has reached out to Ubisoft about the remake.
In a Ubisoft News blog post published Wednesday, the remake’s producer, Jean-Francois Naud, further elaborated on the current state of the game’s development, saying that it’s “still in an early stage” and reiterating what the FAQ says, that the team is being built and gameplay is being prototyped. Naud also confirmed that fans won’t hear more about the remake in 2023.
While it’s possible the game hasn’t completely restarted development from scratch, it’s not a great sign that this already-troubled project that has seen multiple delays is still being prototyped and that the team for it isn’t even fully in place yet. If you were hoping to play this new Sands of Time remake anytime soon, well, I wouldn’t hold your breath.
And just in case you were wondering, Ubisoft confirms in the updated FAQ that, no, it isn’t working on any other Prince of Persia remakes, and doesn’t have plans to. Considering how the Sands of Time remake is going, that’s probably for the best.
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