The Prince of Persia series goes back far longer than most people realize. Originally turning heads as an Apple 2 game in 1989, the 2D platformer used rotoscoping to create the most fluid and realistic animations ever seen at the time. From there, the series grew in popularity, reaching its peak with the Sands of Time trilogy on the PS2 generation, starting with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and followed up by Prince of Persia: Warrior Within and Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. After these games, the series only had two notable console releases, but neither really captured the same amount of acclaim as the prior trilogy.
After being essentially transformed into the Assassin’s Creed series, many people thought the Prince of Persia franchise was dead and buried. However, Ubisoft isn’t a publisher to let a franchise die, and announced the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake in 2020. Since then, fans have been left mostly in the dark as to how much this remake will change or remain faithful to the original.
And those following the game’s less-than-smooth development closely may be worried about the game even coming out at all. Let’s turn back the clock and go over everything we know about the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake.
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Release date
Oh boy, this is a painful one. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake was originally announced in 2020 with a release window of January 2021. Obviously, that didn’t happen, and the game was delayed until March 18, 2021. Again, this date would not be hit. However, the next delay didn’t come with another target release date and was simply left ambiguous.
Eventually, Ubisoft thought progress was going well and slated the game for some time in 2022, but as of May 2022, Ubisoft once again announced the game wouldn’t hit a release within the fiscal year of 2023 since it was shifting the development from its Ubisoft Pune and Ubisoft Mumbai teams to Ubisoft Montreal, the studio that developed the original game. They also canceled all pre-orders for the game, leading many to think the game was canceled, though Ubisoft was quick to confirm that this wasn’t the case.
All that is to say that what sounded like a quick and straightforward project will now go over three years from the original expected release date. We don’t know why the development shifted between studios, or how much work will be carried over, so trying to predict a release date is nearly impossible.
Platforms
Unless this change in developers and extra delays come with new platform announcements, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake might already need a remake since it is only scheduled to come out on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. If they’re taking this long to put it out, they may as well at least port it to current-generation hardware, even though they are backward compatible.
Trailers
In all the time we’ve known about Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, the only trailer shown off has been the announcement trailer from 2020. It shows off footage of the original game with some new voiceover talking about the flow of time before cutting to new footage. Those who played the original will recognize the cutscene as being a re-creation of an early scene from the game where the prince uses the Dagger of Time to release the Sands of Time, corrupting nearly everyone in the city into sand monsters.
From there we get a look at the classic combat, traps, and parkour from the original game. Plus, of course, the iconic feature of being able to rewind time using the dagger to undo mistakes.
Gameplay
From what was shown, which is no doubt out of date at this point, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake looks like a faithful remake in terms of gameplay. In a way, it looks a lot like the Demon’s Souls Remake, where the mechanics all appear to be intact, only with new models, textures, and lighting. The prince can do flowing combos with his sword and dagger, incorporate parkour into his fighting style, and use sand for various powerful moves.
The movement also looks the be the same. We see wall-running, climbing, and various acrobatic feats just like in the original game. Nothing shown looked new, so, for better or worse, expect this game to be a faithful remake in terms of how the game plays.
Ubisoft did note that the game will have two control schemes to choose from: One reworked for modern standards, and a classic one that mimics how the original played.
Multiplayer
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake will not have multiplayer if it is as faithful to the original as it seems. There has never been multiplayer in the entire series’ history, and despite there being a companion character in some sections of the original, it wouldn’t make sense to allow another person to control them.
Pre-order
In an odd twist, you could pre-order Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake until recently. However, with the news of the latest delay and studio switch, pre-orders have actually been delisted from retailers, and anyone who had previously placed one had theirs canceled. If and when Ubisoft puts pre-orders back up, we’ll let you know when it’s safe to place them again.
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