In a shock move, Ubisoft has scrapped the original Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake and is starting all over again.
It’s been clear for a while that the remake of 2003’s time-meddling action adventure wasn’t exactly on course. But it’s still surprising that Ubisoft Montreal, the studio now handling the remake, is starting from scratch.
According to a statement recently posted on Ubisoft’s support site, “With Ubisoft Montréal taking over the development of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, the game is currently in the conception phase.”
The statement continues, “As part of this early stage of development the studio is building up the team, defining priorities, developing prototypes and testing gameplay elements.” So it looks as if they’re binning all the work previously done on the remake.
What’s especially surprising about this is that there was some real substance to the remake. The original trailer 2020 trailer, which you can watch above, featured plenty of gameplay. It also sported all-new voice-overs which could also get scrapped.
Ubisoft announced last year that it had been taken out of the hands of Ubisoft Pune and Ubisoft Mumbai, to be handed to Ubisoft Montreal. They stated they were going to “regroup on the scope of the game”. And, roughly a year later, that’s ended with the studio going back to the drawing board.
So, a 2023 release is out of the window and we’d be surprised if it turned up in 2024. This isn’t the first time a game has been restarted, changed developer or both. Dead Island 2 had three developers and that turned out well.
The developers at Ubisoft Mumbai and Ubisoft Pune probably have contracts that prevent them from sharing their experiences. But we hope that, some day, we’re able to hear the full the story behind this troubled project.
