Ubisoft has confirmed that its Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake has not been cancelled, but has been delayed outside of its 2023 window, with no additional release date.
The announcement comes after some concern was expressed as retailers began to exclude pre-orders from the game. Understandably, many thought this was an indication that the problematic game could simply be cancelled. However, in a statement to the IGN (opens in new tab) Ubisoft said that is not the case and the Sands of Time remake is still in active development, reiterating the announcement (opens in new tab) this work was moved from Ubisoft Pune and Ubisoft Mumbai to Ubisoft Montreal.
“The development of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake will now be led by Ubisoft Montreal,” Ubisoft told IGN. “We are proud of the work done by Ubisoft Pune and Ubisoft Mumbai, and Ubisoft Montreal will benefit from their learnings as the new team will continue the work to deliver a great remake.”
It is “as a consequence” of this change, Ubisoft added, that it is “no longer targeting the FY23 release and the game has been de-listed. If players wish to cancel their pre-order, they are invited to contact the reseller. They will be updated on the project as development progresses.”
As those eagerly awaiting the release of the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake know, this isn’t the first time the game has suffered a somewhat indeterminate delay.
When it was initially announced in 2020, Sands of Time was targeting a January 2021 release, which was pushed back to March, which was pushed back to “a later date.” In October 2021, it was reported that the game was looking at a window of 2022 to 2023. Now, with no new release window in sight, it looks like we can wait some time.
Analysis: head down for now
Even if the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake was better off, it’s unlikely we would have received an update from Ubisoft this summer, as the publisher has confirmed. axios (opens in new tab) which has no plans for a dedicated E3-style showcase in June.
Ubisoft is usually a pretty reliable name for some sort of summer showcase, but luckily it doesn’t plan on being left out entirely in 2022, telling Axios there are plans to do something “later this year”. It’s unclear whether or not other Ubisoft titles may or may not appear in third-party shows, such as the opening night of Summer Game Fest.
The Sands of Time remake isn’t the only Ubisoft project with extended development that we expect updates from, with titles like Beyond Good and Evil 2 and Skull and Bones continuing to intrigue.
Ubisoft isn’t, of course, the only publisher that has chosen not to host a stream this summer, with EA also announcing that its once-a-year EA Play Live won’t go ahead as “this year things aren’t going well.” lining up to show everything on one date.”
However, between the Summer Game Fest on June 9, Future Games Show on June 11, and both Xbox and Bethesda Showcase and PC game program (opens in new tab) on June 12, there’s still a lot to watch.