Why did Ubisoft send Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown to death?

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Typically around this time of year, I reflect back on some of my favorite games from the past year and get ready for Game of the Year conversations. Instead, I spent this week pissed off that the development team for one of my absolute favorite games of 2024 was scattered to the four winds. 2024 isn’t even over yet and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was apparently written off by Ubisoft’s superiors.

– said Abdelhak Elguess, senior producer of the game Eurogamer on Wednesday that “most of the team members who worked on Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown “They have moved on to other projects that will benefit from their expertise.” And according to Insider gamesthese projects are allegedly a Rayman game, the next Ghost Recon game and Beyond good and evil 2 (which has been in development hell since it was first announced in 2008 – that’s true, 2008).

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This despite The lost crown the band is planning a sequel that would bring them all together. Again, according to the same Insider Gaming report, the sequel was scrapped due to the game lagging behind sales expectations.

The lost crowna distinct 2D Metroidvania with fluid combat, a nippy story, and super-adjustable difficulty settings, it wasn’t just a critical favorite at Polygon. It’s number 86 Metacritical and “Very positive” reviews about Couple. Apparently the game has been sold one million copiesbut apparently it wasn’t enough. (Ominous news for Ubisoft Outlaws from Star Warswhich also has he only sold a million.)

Whose fault the game didn’t sell well? Certainly not the creators The lost crownwhich was once again critically acclaimed and beloved by many of the people who played it. This sounds like a marketing problem, not a development problem. So why split up a team of people who have already created something great? Building a cohesive, successful team is extremely arduous. If Ubisoft’s decision-makers didn’t want this team working on another Prince of Persia game, fine – but why not reassign the team to a modern project while keeping them all together?

“If the statement ‘gamers should get used to not owning their games’ is true due to a specific release strategy (sub rather than sell),” further“then the statement ‘developers need to get used to being unemployed if they are to create a critically acclaimed game’ (platform strategy over title sales) is also true, but it is simply unwise – even from a business standpoint.”

I’m not sure an earlier version of Steam would have made a difference The lost crown or not, but I know that releasing the game in early January is a strange move. Very few gigantic games come out during this period; I guess it’s because most people are busy playing the games they received as gifts for Christmas, and if you don’t manage to get the game released before you’ll be climbing an uphill climb this holiday season to bring it to mainstream attention.

Or maybe it was a shadow Sands of Time remake, also in development hell, which caused people to reject another Prince of Persia game. Despite everything, The lost crown doesn’t play The Prince, so if that’s what players wanted, they might not have given the game a chance. Some, looking for other explanations, may point to the accumulation of racist comments about this phenomenon first trailer revealed for this game, which debuted a black hero who wasn’t a prince original hip hop song. It’s strenuous to say how much bigots influence sales; there is not enough data on this. I will say though, as someone who liked the song and the feel of the trailer, I have to admit that this trailer doesn’t fit a video game. I also own the game’s soundtrackbut has a completely different soundscape that combines both contemporary and historical musical influences. I feel like no one at Ubisoft knew how to sell this game, which is stupid and frustrating because it’s incredibly good.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown he deserved better. The development team deserved another chance to create nippy games together. So when we enter GOTY season, well, I’ll still be mad about it.

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