Ubisoft Started, Scrapped Modern-Day Prince of Persia

[John Funk]

Ubisoft Started, Scrapped Modern-Day Prince of Persia

At the dawn of this console generation, Ubisoft had been working on a Prince of Persia game set in the modern day - but scrapped it before it was ever announced.

The Prince of Persia series had Prince of Persia [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/183-Prince-of-Persia-Retrospective] (2008) had a more fantastic feel to it, Ubisoft had toyed with another setting for the Prince: the present day.

Speaking with Xbox 360 World, former Ubisoft artist Jonathan Jacques-Belletête - currently the Art Director at Eidos for Deus Ex: Human Revolution [http://www.amazon.com/Deus-Ex-Human-Revolution-Pc/dp/B002I0HKRQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1285603732&sr=1-1] - said that Ubisoft had originally planned to start the Assassin's Creed franchise on the PS2 and Xbox. After that original Creed was canceled, "[Ubisoft] wanted a spin off for Prince of Persia. We had some awesome ideas with that too ... in contemporary time."

According to Jacques-Belletête, work had already started on the 2008 iteration of the game, and this was an entirely separate project. "[Ubisoft] wanted really something completely out of the left field. And back then I was known as one of the ones ... 'oh this guy can get some pretty cool, weird ideas.'"

From the sound of it, the game was almost post-apocalyptic, in a way. "Think a bit Day After Tomorrow [http://www.amazon.com/Day-After-Tomorrow-Blu-ray/dp/B000VDDWE2/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1285603874&sr=1-1], but replace the snow with sand and everything. It was really wicked." Sadly, the game was canceled and the team moved on to Far Cry. A shame, too - I'd have loved to see how the Prince would have handled an environment filled with skyscrapers and steel.

(CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=266494])

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[Arachon]

Modern-day Persia is Iran, isn't it? Can kind of see why they thought that might be a bad idea.

 

[Woodsey]

They'll never beat Sands of Time. Forgotten Sands was a rather embarrassing attempt at recreating it; I don't understand how a company can quite so amazingly miss what was absolutely fantastic about one of their games.

 

[tomtom94]

The idea has a degree of potential, but due to racial tensions etc I can see why it got scrapped.

Did they use the ideas for AC though?..

 

[Moriarty70]

Too bad, but when will it link up with the Creed games?

 

[StriderShinryu]

That actually sounds pretty cool. We don't have enough modern day parkour style games as it is.

 

[Xanadu84]

I wonder if this was actually a game set in modern day Iran, or if it was just the PoP style platforming and combat in a contemporary setting. Just PoP present day sounds pretty cool.

Or alternatively, your saying THIS was how Mirrors Edge got started?

This could have become Mirrors Edge, a game that I still say was fantastic. Just make it third person, a few more context sensitive commands, and more puzzle-y then timing/twitchy.

 

[Suskie]

That... might have been cool, actually.

 

[Ashendarei]

I would have checked out that game...

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Hell this is when you make up an imagery island or country and then start weaving the setting together, like if Dubai was more like newyork,ect. Then you have a modern setting without alot of buildings to play in and around.

 

[Jared]

I feel it could work really intrestingly. WOuld love to see the concept

 

[UberMore]

I would've much preferred a Modern PoP to the shite that was Far Cry.
That game was terrible and boring. Even with the funny cheats and mods it was still boring.
Now, a racially tense PoP with guns and shit may have been verrry fun and very interesting.

 

[rokkolpo]

Intrigued.
but yeah, i loved The sands of time too much to fully enjoy this kind of game.

 

[Towels]

Hmmm... I wonder if they would keep melee combat in a world full of firearms?

 

[Doctor What]

Modern day Prince of Persia. Ubisoft made PoP. Ubisoft also made Assassin's Creed. AC is "set" in modern times.

HUH.

 

[OceanRunner]

PoP in the present day? How would that even work?

 

[Raziel_Likes_Souls]

Wasn't one of the ads for the Sands of Time a DJ cutting and scratching in tune with the gameplay? Because that's what I thought of when I heard PoP and modern in the same sentence.

But a post-apocalyptic style PoP would've been fun.

 

[Evilsanta]

That sounds awesome...To bad that they it was dropped.

 

[Owlslayer]

I'd like to see a PoP in the modern day/post-apocalypse. Too bad the slow-motion+guns combo is kinda overused. But still, i can imagine some pretty wicked gameplay using guns and melee+time manipulation powers.

But if they thought it couldn't work, i guess they were right. But still....would have liked to see it.