Prince of Persia is on Hiatus

[The Wooster]

Prince of Persia is on Hiatus

Prince of Persia needs time to "breathe and grow," says Ubisoft Montreal CEO.

Before Assassin's Creed snuck up on it and shoved a hidden blade in its back, Prince of Persia was Ubisoft's flagship series. Sands of Time was legitimately ground-breaking, and while its sequels never quite achieved the same level of universal critical adoration, they performed well enough to warrant a number of handheld spin-offs and, of course, the obligatory movie tie-in. Even Prince of Persia (2008) which was met with confused shrugs by many fans, sold at least 2.2 million copies.

But now the series' time in the sun has passed, and we haven't heard a peep from the once mighty franchise since 2010's The Forgotten Sands. Is the series dead, or is it just being consigned to the same dusty corner of portfolio limbo that Beyond Good & Evil 2 inhabits? The latter, it seems.

"Brand management is a tricky thing. It needs people's attention a lot. I think it is fair to say that, right now, Prince of Persia is being paused," Ubisoft Montreal Ceo, Yannis Mallat told IGN. "But we said the same thing for some other brands that suddenly popped up because a team is willing to do it."

"I'm not scared at all for Prince of Persia fans," he continued. "We'll find something to entertain them with in the future. Prince of Persia is part of Ubisoft's portfolio. As a matter of fact, we sometimes iterate on franchises and sometimes we give them time to breathe and time to grow, or time to rest. Prince of Persia is as important as any other franchise for Ubisoft. As soon as we have something to show, we will."

While I'm disappointed to see one of my favorite franchises get bumped onto the back burner, Ubisoft has been reinvigorating some of its older franchises. Driver San Francisco and Rayman Origins stand amongst the best examples of their respective series, though neither sold spectacularly well.


Source: IGN [http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/01/29/prince-of-persia-franchise-paused?utm_campaign=ign+main+twitter&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social]



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[SonicWaffle]

But now the series' time in the sun has passed, and we haven't heard a peep from the once mighty franchise since 2010's The Forgotten Sands. Is the series dead, or is it just being consigned to the same dusty corner of portfolio limbo that Beyond Good & Evil 2 inhabits?

It's not as if that's a particularly long time, though - we're only just into 2013. Beyond Good & Evil came out in 2003 (though I'm ashamed to say I'm only playing it now thanks to the HD rerelease), which is a significantly longer break. Were there really people making a fuss about the lack of new PoP games after only a year or two?

 

[Jandau]

This is far better than derivative yearly sequels. PoP was getting a bit stale by the last major release and the formula was played out. It's better to leave it be for a few years, maybe until the next generation, then bring it back. It'll feel fresh again, like that friend you haven't seen in years. It will also be somewhat free from the burden of the previous games in case it wants to try something new. I wish more franchises knew how to quit while they were ahead...

 

[TJC]

well, thank fuck for that. Don't get me wrong, I love the PoP series but really, we can live a couple of years without them. Pause the franchise before it gets too stale (like it already did to be honest). A lesson many franchises should learn.

 

[DaxStrife]

Translation: "We tried making another Prince of Persia game, and it turned into another Assassin's Creed title; we don't really remember how to make PoP anymore."

 

[FoolKiller]

After the Forgotten Sands in 2010, they need some time off to think about how not to mess it up any further. While there is a nice amount of polish on the Tom Clancy's and Assassin Creed games, the same could not be said for the Forgotten Sands. It was clever in idea, but was a bit of a mess in execution.

Also, where the fuck is the ending for Prince of Persia 2008???? There was a DLC called Epilogue that still didn't finish the fucking story.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

That's interesting.
I actually really loved Rayman Origins and felt like it returned to it's (punishing) roots (Bandland = Gormandland), except with even more personality. It's probably better to take the time and reflect on the direction you want to take with a series rather than make yearly sequels. I'm willing to wait for a high quality game, as long as they don't outright forget about it.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

I don't know why they'd announce a hiatus after 2 years of nothing. That's be like if Nintendo announced today that they were taking a break from making Metroid games.

 

[Batou667]

Reading between the lines:

"We're aware that this series has well and truly jumped the shark despite our best efforts to churn out sequel after dreary sequel. Even that reboot didn't help much. Good thing we still have Assassin's Creed to milk dry... oh, wait. Sincerely, Ubisoft"

 

[FEichinger]

"But we said the same thing for some other brands that suddenly popped up because a team is willing to do it."

That sounds less like "We want to let it rest." than "We can't find a studio that actually wants to do this."

 

[Terramax]

In other words, we'll bleed the Assassin's Creed franchise for all its worth, and when people are done, we'll bring back PoP. XD

 

[surg3n]

What do we really need though, from Prince of Persia - some medieval parkour!, that's all, just copy Mirrors Edge, set it in some Persian palace.

What I like about Prince of Persia is the game flow, the important thing is being able to move fluidly, whether it's sword fighting, climbing buildings, evading enemies - as long as we have that dynamic movement, we'll be fine. Assasins Creed has all the storyline already, in fact it's like some $15 hooker, covered in makeup and promising the earth - Persia should be more straightforward... climb up the palace, save the princess, get out the palace. I kinda wish Ubisoft would just let it be the game that it already was 2 decades ago.

 

[FFP2]

I loved the 2008 cell shaded one but Ubi really need to go back and see what made Sands of Time so good and work it out from there.

 

[redknightalex]

I think this is a good thing, no matter the reason its been shelved at this point in time. The Prince of Persia series had started to feel stale, with all the new, interesting ideas going to other franchises (like Assassin's Creed), and Ubisoft seemed unable to save what used to be their big name game. If they actually take this time to re-evaluate what made this game so good and move from there, I think PoP can make a great comeback. Or, possibly, it just needs to be left behind. Frankly, I don't even know what they can do with this franchise anymore.

Also, my first thought upon seeing the article was "what would Yahtzee think of this?" I know he liked Sands of Time at least.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Christ, if Prince Of Persia is being given "time to rest", what does BG&E count as? Being allowed to be stuck in a coma? On life support?

I just want Beyond Good & Evil 2, damnit! Especially when Prince Of Persia is one of those series I've never really cared about.

 

[bafrali]

Yeah I remember Capcom saying something like that about megaman. Now we have Xover and no rescue boat on sight.

 

[Al-Bundy-da-G]

Isn't this what you guys want? For publishers to stop re-using old IPs and start new ones, avoiding sequelitis? We should celebrate this.

 

[ScruffyMcBalls]

I really enjoyed the previous games and while the Sands of Time mechanic was really interesting (and to my knowledge hasn't been done as well since), it doesn't warrant bringing the franchise back unless there's a genuinely good idea floating around.
I agree with most, however, that Beyond Good & Evil 2 should come back into focus long before Prince of Persia. Ten years since the last game, quite some time since the teasers, I think we're done waiting now Ubisoft.