The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake has been delayed no less than three times since the game was announced back in 2020. Even though we seem no closer to an official release date, Ubisoft has made a new move in the game’s development. The developer has decided to start refunding pre-orders.
While smart, this move doesn’t exactly project confidence to the players who are still excited to play this game – whenever it happens to be playable. Logically, the move to refund pre-orders seems like an unofficial statement that the game isn’t coming. Pre-orders are a method of securing the opportunity to play a game immediately upon release, even though the developer may be months or years away from actually releasing a project.
Returning proceeds from pre-orders seems like the developer admitting defeat and silently announcing that the game is in no state to warrant pre-order or even that the entire project is likely to be scrapped.
However, Ubisoft Montreal has confirmed the opposite. The developer announced in its latest update on the long-awaited game that Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake is indeed still in development. The publisher has also released a statement on the pre-order cancellations, stating that ‘Since the game currently does not have a release date, existing pre-orders have been cancelled and refunded where applicable.’
The publisher further stated that pre-orders ‘may reopen’ upon the announcement of the game’s revised release date. Ubisoft ended the statement off by confirming that this would be its last Prince of Persia title, at least for the foreseeable future, as there are no plans for another game in the franchise at present.
The long-awaited game’s development was previously under the care of Ubisoft Mumbai and Ubisoft Pune. In May, Ubisoft announced that the game had been handed over to Ubisoft Montreal, which has been overseeing the development since it was requisitioned from Ubisoft’s Indian studios.
According to TheGamer, the failure of the Indian Studios all began with a ‘classic case of ambition over ability.’ The Indian studios, while eager to prove their mettle under the stewardship of Jean-Philippe Pieuchot, simply could not handle the complexity of the project and routinely made decisions that impacted the game’s viability in their hands.
We hope that Ubisoft Montreal is making smarter development decisions than its counterparts.
