Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake Is Reportedly Being Rebuilt From Scratch

After being stuck in development hell, the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake is reportedly being built again from the ground up at its new veteran Ubisoft studio. After taking over the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake project, the new devs have allegedly changed nearly everything that was created by the former team working on it.

First announced at Ubisoft Forward in 2020, the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake has faced multiple setbacks right from the start. It was first scheduled for release in 2021, with Ubisoft Pune and Ubisoft Mumbai handling the project. However, reeling from heavy criticism for its first trailer, publisher Ubisoft gave the reins back to veteran developer Ubisoft Montreal, which was also the creator of the original Sands of Time game. With no official confirmed release window right now, Ubisoft Montreal devs seemingly decided to scrap everything previously built and started working on the remake project from scratch.

Ubisoft Montreal ditched the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake build inherited from its previous developers, Ubisoft Pune and Ubisoft Mumbai, and are currently working on a freshly built project, according to Insider Gaming. To put things into perspective, the Sands of Time remake’s new developer was expected to build upon the work already done by the parting studio but, interestingly, the former eventually decided to give the project a complete makeover. Additionally, the source states that the leaked footage shows the game having missing textures, indicating that the game is still in an early phase of its development cycle and, hence, years away from release.

Further, the report underlines that the Sands of Time remake has been rewritten and mo-capped again as well. Apart from that, the new version also brings a “realistic approach” with improved graphics, animations, mechanics compared to the previous build. In a surprising turn of events, it has also been revealed that lead voice actor Yuri Lowenthal, who also voices Spider-Man in Marvel’s Spider-Man games, is no longer reprising his role as the Prince despite having featured in the game’s announcement trailer.

A Different Prince of Persia Game May Be Around the Corner

While Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake’s release is expected to be quite some time away, there are rumors of another Prince of Persia title with roguelike gameplay being in development. This particular game is reportedly being developed by Dead Cells studio Evil Empire, based on reports. Given Ubisoft recently found success moving away from the traditional third-person action-adventure theme of the series to the side-scroller genre with Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, it seems likely that the publisher would want to explore another possibility within the same franchise.

Prince of Persia

The Prince of Persia franchise is a long-running series that began in 1989 with the first-ever cinematic platformer. The series has dabbled in many genres, though the games are predominantly a blend of action-adventure and platforming. 

The original Prince of Persia isn’t the series’ only iconic game, as 2003’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is still considered one of the best action-adventure games of all time.