Ubisoft has delayed the Prince of Persia Sands of Time Remake yet again. The release date, which was previously delayed to March 18, 2021, has now simply shifted to a “later date.”
According to Ubisoft, they witnessed “an outpouring of feedback” which is simply a sugarcoated way to say that the fans weren’t happy with the release. The “PS3” era visuals revealed in the official trailer had left a bad taste and the community wasn’t shy to address their concerns.
Ubisoft initially delayed the game till March 18, 2021, to make up for the global lockdown. However, Ubisoft decided to listen to the fanbase, a rather rare occurrence among AAA developers, and delayed the game to “deliver a remake that feels fresh while remaining faithful to the original.”
Prince of Persia Sands of Time Remake is being developed by Ubisoft Pune, a subsidiary of Ubisoft based in India. Previously, Ubisoft Pune acted as a support studio for the western outlets and contributed to games like Just Dance and Rayman Legends.
Although not a new IP or even a new game, Prince of Persia Sands of Time Remake is Ubisoft Pune’s first full-length game that would quite likely dictate the future of the studio. On top of that, Prince of Persia is a cult classic. In fact, the renowned Assassin’s Creed franchise is the spiritual successor of Prince of Persia, so Ubisoft Pune had no room for mistakes.
The infinite delay will give Ubisoft Pune a chance to rework the game from the ground-up. The classic wall-running and hack-n-slash gameplay are already here, so all the game needs is a graphical overhaul. Hopefully, Ubisoft will do justice to the beloved franchise and make a game looks like it was released in the 2020s rather than 2010s.
Some fans have compared the situation to Cyberpunk 2077 and how Ubisoft is learning from CD Projekt Red’s mistakes. But I beg to differ. Cyberpunk 2077 was a hyped and seemingly perfect title until it was released. It was only after the release the complaints started flowing in. However, in the case of Prince of Persia Sands of Time Remake, the complaints started rolling in as soon the game was revealed.
Prince of Persia Sands of Time Remake was supposed to release on PS4, Xbox One and PC on March 18, 2021. However, the indefinite delay also comes with the promise of bringing the game on PS5, Xbox Series S/X and maybe even Switch.
