Prince of Persia: The Sands of Times Remake Has Been Delayed Once Again, This Time Out of 2023
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Times Remake has had one of the most troubled development periods in recent memory, laden with behind-the-scenes issues. The game, originally announced back in 2020 with a 2021 planned release, has still not come out and has no concrete release date in sight. Just last month, the game shifted its development teams from Ubisoft Mumbai and Ubisoft Pune to Ubisoft Montreal.
This was a bittersweet shuffle as now the original creators of the Sands of Time trilogy was working on the remake, but a switch this late in the development cycle meant that a delay was imminent. At the time of coverage, I said that no word on a potential delay had been conveyed and that Ubisoft would provide an update on the game’s progress in the future. Well, that day is here and it’s not looking good.
Before we cover the update, I should introduce some context into this situation. A few days ago, some retailers including Amazon stopped taking pre-orders for the game since May 24th. Earlier today, many retailers, such as GameStop, entirely de-listed the game from their platforms making it impossible to pre-order the remake anymore. Obviously, this maneuver killed any hopes left for a 2023 release for the game.
Hearing that GameStop is no longer expecting Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake to release and are instructed to let people who preorder it know it will not be arriving. The website also says it's unavailable and listings seem to be getting delisted pic.twitter.com/MVcVjnmWgX
— Wario64 (@Wario64) June 3, 2022
Not cancelled but not here either
Fans started to wonder if the game had actually been axed. A cancellation doesn’t seem uncanny considering the difficulties behind the curtains and it would make sense to put the hold on a project that’s had this shaky of a history. However, it seems like the game has not be cancelled, just delayed, once again, this time indefinitely. Ubisoft issued the forthcoming statement to IGN following today’s delisting:
The development of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake will now be led by Ubisoft Montreal. We’re proud of the work achieved by Ubisoft Pune and Ubisoft Mumbai, and Ubisoft Montreal will benefit from their learnings as the new team will continue the work to deliver a great remake.
As a consequence, we are no longer targeting a FY23 release anymore and the game has been delisted. If players wish to cancel their preorder they are invited to contact their retailer. They will be updated on the project as the development is moving along.
As you can see, that statement confirms that the Prince of Persia Remake is no longer coming out next year. As expected, so many hurdles and a damn last-minute studio change has had a severe impact on the game’s development. It’s very viable that Ubisoft is almost looking at an internal reworking of sorts for the remake, especially given how lukewarm the audience response was to the first trailer.
Whether the new team is starting from scratch or continuing right from where Ubisoft Mumbai and Pune left off, it will be a long time before we see this game materialize. With Ubisoft Montreal at the helm, we can only hope that this brings more good than bad, and that the team can save this project from development hell at last. Keep in mind that no release window was announced or even hinted at alongside this update.
If you were looking forward to playing the remake later, or even worse, if you had pre-ordered the game, you’d have to wait a lot longer now. The fact that Ubisoft is actually encouraging people to cancel their preorders if they wish to should be enough to tell you that this game is not coming out anytime soon, and that a possible revamp of the project is in order.
