Ubisoft fans cannot catch a break with all the bad news surrounding the developer these days, and the latest news about the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake being cancelled has been the hardest nail in the coffin.
This was an action game that was one of the most prestigious franchises of all time back in the 2000s. Looking at how the company was struggling to keep its wits about it, when the remake was going through so many developmental problems, one could’ve assumed that this was to happen.
Social media just wasn’t ready for it to hit so suddenly, and the reactions show genuine disappointment in the fandom.
Sands of Time Remake was already in development hell
Sands of Time Remake already went through a full phase of development under the Indian Ubisoft subsidiary studio. But the product that came out did not look like it was going to live up to the global AAA standards. So the development was rebooted, and this time the project was being handled by a more experienced studio.
The remake went into a second phase of a fresh development cycle, post the announcement of an indefinite delay in 2021. Next time we saw a teaser for the game, it was in 2024 during Ubisoft Forward with a new release window for 2026.
Fast forward to now, and Ubisoft has officially announced the game’s cancellation. This comes along with a plethora of other bad news around the company, which includes other cancellations, delays, and layoffs.
It has been confirmed publicly that multiple games at the studio have been scrapped. Three of which were supposed to be completely new IPs and a mobile game. Prince of Persia Sands of Time Remake is the only one that had its name revealed out of the cancelled games.
Ubisoft is going through a major restructuring
Ubisoft has further revealed that moving forward, the company’s main focus will solely be on massive open-world live service model of games. The rest of the Ubisoft games that were in development have now been confirmed to be delayed.
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Remaster was a rumoured game that was supposed to be revealed for a release window this March, but there have been no words on it yet. Fans can still have hope that it might be delayed for now, along with the other titles.
On the harsher side of things, it seems like the company is going to go through a mass restructuring and portfolio reset, according to a spokesperson. This will lead to the closing of Ubisoft Stockholm and Halifax studios, as already revealed.
Ubisoft has not given any definite details regarding layoffs due to this restructuring. They are reportedly moving to a new policy of five days of in-office work, along with the annual allowance of work-from-home days.
