Prince of Persia Could Have Achieved Redemption

In a wild twist: Footage for a cancelled Prince of Persia project was lying right under our noses for years.

This is what appears to be a development pitch video for a project that was, at the time this was created, planned to be known as Prince of Persia Redemption. It shows a slice of very familiar action for the PoP franchise, with the titular prince running through a city beset with terror by using acrobatics such as wall running and quick jumping. It also has a small skirmish, which, along with a portion of the platforming, show how the team wanted to retain the Sands of Time mechanic from that series’ Trilogy with a few modifications. The Prince himself resembles older version of him from that Trilogy albeit with short hair and more facial hair, perhaps a sign that this was a direct successor.

This video was uploaded to YouTube in 2012, a mere two years after The Forgotten Sands and the Jake Gyllenhaal-led theatrical movie released, and let’s just say it looks very much like a game from that era. The drab color palette heavily emphasizes its browns, the antithesis of the colorful and woefully underappreciated 2008 reboot. (I will defend that game until death, thank you.)

The slice of gameplay (if you want to call it that) looks very linear and set piece-driven, notably forgivable and rudimentary thanks to this being a development pitch. The skirmish is choreographed to a comical degree, with the Prince getting killed by simple (for a video game) spear stabs, only to rewind time to undo that moment. The video itself displayed loose ideas for what a team wanted to do with a new sequel, at least some of which could have made it into an actual game. Ideas always shift during a development process.

What’s most interesting is how this video surfaced. It was uploaded over eight years ago, and somehow went largely unnoticed before its discovery by the internet at large. It only had 150 views when it was found, but has since racked up over half a million now that the secret is out.

It was hidden in plain sight despite Marc-André Belleau, an Assistant Technical Director at Ubisoft Montreal, asking “How did you get this!?” around two years ago in at least a slightly alarmed tone in the comments. If anyone is still doubting its veracity, the LinkedIn page for Christophe Prélot, a former lead 3D Artist working for Ubisoft Montreal, confirms this game was in development for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC before it was cancelled. It was further confirmed by Assassin’s Creed III animator Jonathan Cooper, whose team made a similar pitch for that game. It’s a remarkable achievement that no one noticed it after all this time, but something like this was bound to happen with the internet being so content-flooded.

This all begs a key question yet again: What does the future hold for Prince of Persia? Ubisoft is at least slightly aware that a solid group of fans would welcome a new game, with the reaction they attracted after For Honor’s PoP event was announced. It would be nice if they had something more in development given the shortage of parkour-driven action-adventure games around, especially as one-time spiritual successor Assassin’s Creed has become more of a Witcher-influenced action RPG since Assassin’s Creed Origins released.

The chances of a new PoP game existing will depend on whether Ubisoft is still willing to fund projects budgeted slightly lower than their flagship games. It also depends on, as Cooper mentioned, whether Ubisoft wants to stomach the lower profit margins thanks to franchise creator Jordan Mechner still partially owning the rights. The earliest years of next-generation console lifespans, due to launch this fall, are good times to relaunch old franchises, so we might get an answer as to whether they’re willing to approve another title soon.

If Ubisoft doesn’t want to green light another PoP title for those reasons, they could make yet another spiritual successor. Again, Assassin’s Creed has drifted too far into RPG land to qualify anymore. Another adventure game that retains the setting and overall feel of the PoP franchise titles would work, and Ubisoft has shown how good they are at marketing even new properties, so I’m confident it would sell fine. This all depends on how they’re feeling.

But for all we know, this idea could have already been pitched and shot down too. Maybe there’s even a video of it on YouTube now, unbeknownst to nearly everyone.

There isn’t a time when rumors aren’t swirling about Ubisoft having a new Prince of Persia game in the works; it feels like there’s always one before E3 every year, even in a year when E3 is cancelled. They never pan out, but there’s a good audience that wouldn’t mind if one of those rumors ended up true, though they’d likely also welcome the kind of successor I described. Well, assuming it doesn’t go in an unexpected direction, like Beyond Good & Evil 2.