Remember the Prince of Persia games? Game designer Jordan Mechner put out the first Prince of Persia game back in 1989, and the series has remained popular to this day, even if no new Prince of Persia game has hit shelves since 2010.
And arguably the best of the series is 2003’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time – it’s great gameplay, atmosphere and characters won it a place in the hearts of gamers worldwide. The game got two sequels (Warrior Within and The Two Thrones) and sold millions of copies, so it makes sense that Ubisoft is tapping into The Sands of Time trilogy for its new game.
However, the new Prince of Persia game (titled “Prince of Persia: The Dagger of Time”) will not be available for purchase on consoles and PC – rather, this will be a Virtual Reality Escape Room game which Ubisoft will be allowing people to play at select venues.
According to Ubisoft’s official description (via Forbes):
“Two, three or four players team up and work together to solve puzzles and find a way out of a reimagined Fortress of Time. In the story, players are summoned by Kaileena, the Empress of Time. They are asked to help her to stop the evil plans of a Magi who is attempting to restore the sands to the Hourglass of Time and create an army of Sand Monsters”.
The Fortress of Time is a location which appeared in 2004’s Warrior Within game, where the Prince meets a character named Kaileena. And Kaileena does indeed appear in this new Prince of Persia game as a non-player character, acting as a narrator in the game.
This escape room VR game focuses on solving puzzles and cooperation, but there’s no combat against enemy creatures as in the earlier games. This will also feature vertical exploration – climbing to higher highs in a virtual reality environment will be part of the experience, and also using the “dagger of time”. This magical item appeared in 2003’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time game, and let players rewind time.
In the VR game only one player can wield the dagger at one time. The others will be affected by that player’s use of the dagger though, and the manipulation of time can lead to the opening of new paths for other players as Ubisoft explains on its website.
As stated earlier, this escape room VR game will be available to play at select locations all over the world, although clearly some Prince of Persia fans will be disappointed that no new Prince of Persia game for consoles has been announced by Ubisoft in almost a decade now.
But still, Ubisoft might be attempting to revive interest in the franchise, which peaked in 2010 with the release of the Prince of Persia movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal, and the not so good Forgotten Sands game.
So, could a new Prince of Persia game be on the cards? Some people would surely be delighted if Ubisoft announced an open world Prince of Persia game a la Assassin’s Creed, but this seems unlikely right now.
This is because a new Assassin’s Creed featuring Vikings will very likely be shipping this year, and Ubisoft also has other big projects in the works including a new Watchdogs game and possibly another Far Cry game too.
Nonetheless, it’s still a great thing that Ubisoft has decided to bring back one of the most iconic video game franchises ever, even if it is in the form of a new VR game which thankfully many people will be able to try as it’s hitting hundreds of venues all over the world this spring. But it’s likely even more people would be thrilled if a new Prince of Persia for consoles and PC became a reality one day no doubt.
Read more: Should Ubisoft bring back Prince of Persia?