What future remains for the cult Prince of Persia license after the end of the sequel to The Lost Crown and Ubisoft’s rejection of a sequel? We take stock.
Yesterday, Thursday October 24, 2024, we learned that Ubisoft has decided to stop supporting Prince of Persia The Lost Crown, despite it being one of the best games in a long time. At issue are the disappointing sales figures for the publisher, who did not want to give the green light for a sequel or expansions. Fortunately, there were no layoffs as a result of this decision. But the members of the Ubisoft Montpellier team responsible for this very good episode were sent elsewhere. On projects with “better sales potential”according to origami sources they did not choose. Where is the license after the bad news?
The ending of Prince of Persia The Lost Crown…
As we have learned, Ubisoft does not want to offer Prince of Persia The Lost Crown a future. Even if it is one of the publisher’s biggest critical successes in recent years. What happens to the developers? Some of them are apparently helping out on the Rayman remake while Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still in development at the studio. Ubi Montpellier has also managed to secure a new creative director to try and complete the project.
Instead of remaining silent in the face of all this, the executive producer of Prince of Persia The Lost Crown has spoken out. Here is the message posted on the franchise’s official X account. « I am extremely proud of the work and passion that our team at Ubisoft Montpellier showed to create a game that resonated with players and critics, and I am confident that it will be successful in the long term » 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 DLC released in September. We’re now working on making the game available to more players: it was recently released on Steam and will be available on Mac this winter.” he added.
…but not the license
Despite this decision not to develop The Lost Crown further than planned, is the franchise in danger? Not if the message’s conclusion is to be believed. “We know gamers love this brand and Ubisoft looks forward to offering more Prince of Persia experiences in the future.”. Plus, we already know what the future of the series will look like.
The Sands of Time remake is still in development and promises many new features, especially in the way the story is approached. For example, when it comes to improvements, the team wants to provide more nuance without distorting the scenario. For Adam Granger, creative director of Bio Jade, it was important “sanctify, respect, modernize” this work as I add things. Princess Farah, for example, will be a true ally but will exist on her own. There will also be improvements in combat, which will be more dynamic and fluid, and in environmental design with an expansion of Azad’s Palace.
At the same time, The Rogue Prince of Persia, a rogue-lite developed by Evil Empire (Dead Cells), is still in early access on Steam. This week the team released a new update that adds more than 50 medallions and also overhauls this system of items with diverse effects. In light of the criticism, Evil Empire reworked its copy to make it more intuitive and give players more freedom in creating their build. It is also possible to rescue a little girl throughout the levels to receive rewards. Finally, as always, many bugs have been fixed, which you can discover in detail with the Patch notes.
Source: Official Prince of Persia X account.
