Ubisoft reboots its troubled Prince of Persia remake

Ubisoft’s remake of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, originally planned for release in 2021 but delayed multiple times, has been effectively rebooted with Ubisoft Montreal taking over development from Ubisoft Pune. The Sands of Time remake is now “currently in the conception phase,” according to a new developer Q&A and FAQ posted by Ubisoft on Wednesday.

On Twitter, the official Prince of Persia account noted that The Sands of Time remake won’t be at June’s Ubisoft Forward showcase, “but fear not: it’s very much alive.” It’s just, again, in an “early stage” of development.

“In terms of the development stage, we’re in conception right now,” producer Jean-Francois Naud said in an in-house interview with colleagues at Ubisoft. “Since we took over the project, we’ve been looking at feedback from the community and finding our own way of delivering the game. Now, 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. 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.”

The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake does not have a release date, and Ubisoft has canceled existing pre-orders of the game.

Ubisoft announced its Sands of Time remake in September 2020, and expected to release the game on PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and Xbox One early the following year. The remake was quickly, but briefly delayed, and later delayed indefinitely before Ubisoft took on the task of starting from scratch. Ubisoft has not announced which platforms the rebooted remake will appear on.

The original Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was released in 2003 on Game Boy Advance, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Windows PC, and Xbox. It was developed by Ubisoft Montreal.