Story Highlights
- Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a high-class side-scrolling Metroidvania that came out earlier this year.
- The game, according to the developer, will not be getting a sequel due to low sales.
- The team that worked on the title has been disbanded at Ubisoft Montpellier.
This is certainly not the type of news many of us expected as Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown continued to win hearts over following its launch earlier in the year. According to French industry insider Gautoz, the subteam that was tasked to handle the development of the side-scrolling Metroidvania has been disbanded, so all hopes of a sequel have come crashing down.
For reference, skip to 23:30 in the following video. Since the clip is in French, you will need to translate the language if you’re a non-speaker.
It’s been reported that the decision to cut Ubisoft Montpellier’s subteam’s strings came shortly after The Lost Crown’s launch because that’s when sales projections had started to spring up and the results were clear. These findings are based on multiple Ubisoft developers who decided to speak up about the project’s future with said insider.
A few members of the core dev team fought to get a sequel greenlit which did not happen, then they pushed for two expansions hoping that it would work this time but it didn’t since Ubisoft needed more hands to help on other projects that had a better sales potential which wasn’t the case with Lost Crown not meeting sales expectations.
Another crazy justification that the dev team received from higher-ups was that releasing a sequel for the game would cannibalize long term sales of the first game,” translates a ResetEra user.
One particular factor that could’ve influenced this is the general consensus around Ubisoft games and how they are prone to going on sale. The game was released in January, and was cut $20 down on its price within the same month for the Xbox Series X|S. This led many to wait for further sales instead of purchasing it at full price.
Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown Is A Terrific Side-Scroller
I really found The Lost Crown to be making strides in the genre, paving the way for more developers to take risks in gaming. Its fresh and clean combat, followed by fantastic visuals, great art direction, and frequent moments of magic can turn anyone into a fan, let alone a follower of the franchise. eXputer reviewed the title as well, rating it 3.5/5.0, with author Usama Mehmood remarking,
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown has completely subverted my initial expectations, providing us with a great game to kickstart 2024 off.”
It’s too sad to see the future of this particular title get washed down the drain, considering the potential on display here, but I do hope Ubisoft changes its mind down the road.
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