The Prince of Persia games were some of the most-played and most-loved back in the day, but the series has been dormant for years, with a mobile iteration coming out in 2013 being the last single player Prince of Persia fans got their hands on.
However, it’s clear that still in 2010 video game company Ubisoft had big plans for the franchise. This is the year that the pretty good Prince of Persia movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal was doing the rounds in theatres, and also the year in which the last big budget Prince of Persia game (The Forgotten Sands) was released.
At about this time, Ubisoft was also working on Prince of Persia Redemption – another third person action and adventure game in the series which was ultimately cancelled. Maybe it was the success of other Ubisoft franchises like Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry which had to do with this, with the French video game company deciding to consign Prince of Persia Redemption to the dustbin of history.
Thankfully, though, thanks to footage which has emerged online, we can take a look at what this game could have been… Actually, the video was posted on YouTube back in 2012 with nobody noticing, only to come to the attention of the folks at ResetEra (via Eurogamer) recently.
I don’t know about you, but watching this video gives me God of War vibes… Maybe it’s the giant monster tearing the city apart from underneath, while the Prince here does bear some resemblance to God of War’s protagonist Kratos. This being a Prince of Persia game, there’s plenty of parkour as can be expected, and some brutal combat too – the fight against an oversized enemy soldier does remind me a bit of a similar confrontation in Ubisoft’s recent trailer for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
Of course, Prince of Persia Redemption will never get to be, as this was just a proof of concept video (pre-rendered and not actual gameplay) and Ubisoft eventually pulled the plug to focus on other projects.
But, could Prince of Persia actually be coming back?
Ubisoft might have been hinting that it’s getting ready to return to one of its most beloved franchises, starting with the release of Prince of Persia: The Dagger of Time earlier this year. Granted, this was just a VR escape room game, but it was the first Prince of Persia game players could enjoy in years, even if it required traveling to one of Ubisoft’s VR venues to play it.
Later in March Ubisoft may have surprised people with a Prince of Persia crossover event in its For Honor game, making it clear the Prince of Persia franchise was now in the minds of Ubi’s creative people again (it’s also something of a coincidence that part of the team behind For Honor was responsible for the Prince of Persia Redemption proof concept video too).
Also, Ubisoft recently registered the “Prince of Persia 6” domain, meaning a new game in the series could now be in the works at the French company.
Further confirmation of this comes via a notorious leaker who goes by the online name Okabe, who responding to a poster on ResetEra about the Prince of Persia franchise being dead, said “see ya in a couple of weeks”, a pretty strong hint that an announcement from Ubisoft could be coming soon…
Instead of an original entry in the series, though, this could instead be a remaster or remake of earlier Prince of Persia games – old classics like The Sands of Time and Warrior Within surely are need of a fresh coat of paint, but it’s a matter of wait and see though. Personally, I would love to see an open world action and adventure game set in the Prince of Persia universe, but that might be too similar to Ubisoft’s modern Assassin’s Creed games for some people’s liking though.
Nonetheless, if an announcement about a new Prince of Persia game really is coming from Ubisoft, here’s hoping it leaves both fans of the series and those yet to play as the Prince satisfied when it arrives.
Read more: Ranking the Prince of Persia Games from Worst to Best