Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, a remake project announced well over two years ago, is back at the “conception” stage, after development was moved from Ubisoft Pune to Ubisoft Montreal. Effectively, the studio is starting from scratch, and as such there’ll be no updates at the French publisher’s upcoming Ubisoft Forward event next month – or even later this year.
“We're building up the team, defining the priorities, putting prototypes together, testing elements, and looking at how we can include community feedback in the development as well,” producer Jean-Francois Naud explained. “It’s still in an early stage, and players should not expect to hear more about the game this year, but rest assured that we’re all putting our strengths and heart into this project.”
Game director Michael McIntyre – not that one! – goes on to explain that remaking the release is important, as the original is now 20 years old. “It’s been 20 years since the original game was released, and not only has technology advanced but I think we, as players and game-makers, have evolved since that time, too,” he observed.
The interview, which you can read in full, goes on to explain Ubisoft Montreal’s aims and ambitions for the project – but it’s clear the team is unwilling to commit to much, as it’s still in its early phases of development. The main takeaway is that the studio clearly wants to blend the old with the new – it wants to focus on platforming and puzzles like the original, but evolve the way the Prince moves and animates.
This is a long, long way off. Despite originally being announced for the PS4, we imagine this will ultimately launch on the PS5, and it’s likely the last-gen version will be scrapped. Don’t expect to be playing this until late 2024, or even potentially 2025 – it’s that far away!
[source news.ubisoft.com]