Some of Ubisoft’s most anticipated games for the current fiscal year have already been announced, including Assassin’s Creed Mirage (which appears to be on schedule on October 12), Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, The Crew Motorfest, and others. These will undoubtedly be present in greater numbers at Ubisoft Forward on June 12. Those expecting Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake will be dissatisfied, though.
Ubisoft reaffirmed in a fresh tweet that the project is “very much alive.” It won’t be present at the publisher’s presentation in June, though. The remake, which was first announced for 2020, was repeatedly postponed before being moved from Ubisoft Pune and Ubisoft Mumbai to Ubisoft Montreal. Game director Michael McIntyre and producer Jean-Francois Naud gave some development details in a recent interview.
It is now in the conception stage of development, according to Naud. “Since we took over the project, we’ve been considering community feedback and figuring out how to produce the game. We’re currently putting together prototypes, testing components, determining priorities, and looking at ways to incorporate community feedback into the development process.
Although the project is still in its early stages and players shouldn’t anticipate hearing more about it this year, rest assured that we are all putting our best efforts and hearts into it.
McIntyre discussed the team’s strategy for the remake. Although there is technology to enhance the Prince’s movement, he also pointed out that players have expectations about what it means to handle a character based on other contemporary video games. We are considering how to take these lessons and apply them to the spirit of a game like Prince of Persia because Ubisoft Montreal has solid expertise in that area.
“That kind of thing is more than just technology; it really is us as game developers evolving and understanding that for players, simply picking up a polished version of the original would not meet their expectations,” the game developer said.
Naud acknowledged that the team has access to “tons of documentation” on the original and mentioned the goals and intentions of the original developer. Along with movement, other improvements are being made to the story and fighting, according to McIntyre. The latter will still be “true to itself,” but it will be presented in a more “nuanced and refined” way.
There must be some balance between appealing to newbies and preserving the authentic experience for fans, of course. “One of the best things about Sands of Time is that it’s incredibly welcome to newbies, just in terms of its entire premise and how it was designed. I think when people played the initial game, they felt it was quite welcoming in terms of difficulty, for example. “We want to stick with that philosophy,” McIntyre added.
Additionally, he made a suggestion on adding accessibility features. The ability for players to tailor their gaming experience to suit their preferences has been one of the biggest advancements in the business over the past 20 years. And because these accessibility features were unusual at the time, it will let new players join this game even if they couldn’t play a game like this at the time. To assist novices in entering this type of game, that is another feature we are aiming to embrace.
The PS4, Xbox One, and PC versions of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake were initially planned, with compatibility for the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Keep checking back for more information in the upcoming months (or years) as it’s still a ways off.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake won’t be at the upcoming Ubisoft Forward, but fear not: it’s very much alive.
Get an update on the remake through this Q&A with our producer and game director from Ubisoft Montréal: https://t.co/FS7ofoZNmt pic.twitter.com/DAVmsD6FTA
— Prince of Persia™ (@princeofpersia) May 24, 2023