It is highly likely that this indicates that there will be no sequel or further downloadable content.
The team that worked on the newly launched platformer Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown has reportedly been removed from their position by Ubisoft, as reported by a prominent French journalist. One of the purported reasons for the dissolution of the squad is a straightforward one. Ubisoft “needed more hands to help on other projects that had a better sales potential” because the game did not match the expectations put forward by the company regarding its sales. This is what a translation that was published on Reset Era claims to be the case.
“Most of the team members who worked on Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown have shifted to other projects that will benefit from their expertise,” said Abdelhak Elguess, a senior producer on the game, in an interview with Eurogamer.
According to a study by Insider Gaming, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown generated a total revenue of $15 million during its first few weeks of availability. This was achieved by selling approximately 300,000 copies after the game was released. It has been said that these sales figures “sealed the fate” of the game and the development team behind it. Ubisoft employees allegedly appealed to higher-ups for a sequel or additional downloadable content (DLC), but they were allegedly rebuffed.
For some strange reason, the officials of the corporation apparently declined to give the go-ahead for a sequel on the grounds that it would compete with the sales of the first installment. Regardless, I’m not entirely certain that this is how sequels function, particularly when they are released many years after the initial game, but whatever.
There are several reasons why this is a tragic situation. To begin, the game could not have been better. The average score for the Metacritic aggregate review is 86, while the average score for user reviews is somewhere around 8.5 out of 10. After playing it, I came to the conclusion that it was an outstanding Metroidvania game that could easily be placed on the same level as some of the genre’s most established titles, such as Hollow Knight and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
A further reason why this is a disappointment is because fans frequently claim that Ubisoft does not experiment with new ideas. Instead, the company relies on iterative enhancements of its core brands or applies tried-and-true gaming principles to pre-existing intellectual properties. It is true that Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a return to the old style, but it is not another boring open world map that is loaded with stealth missions and fetch quests.
Taking everything into consideration, it appears to have been a beneficial learning experience as well. Gautoz, the French journalist who broke this news, stated that he had heard on many occasions from staff that it was the most memorable experience they had ever had in the making of a video game. It was regarded as a “beacon of hope” for “people that were burned out by” the never-ending production cycle of Beyond Good and Evil 2, which was the game in question.
What factors contributed to its poor performance? There is no concrete evidence, but this was a two-dimensional sidescroller that cost an astounding sixty dollars. Perhaps that is one of the reasons. When it comes to retro-style games, Nintendo is the only company that can get away with asking full price.
This was just one of two sidescrolling Prince of Persia games that were released this year, which may have caused some confusion in the market. It is also important to note that this was just one of the options available. The Rogue Prince of Persia was also developed by Evil Empire, the same team that was responsible for Dead Cells, and it was released as an early access title in May. The conventional franchise games have been given a roguelike twist in this edition.