Grave Gamer News & Views — yannis mallat

When Will the Prince of Persia Return? Not Soon, Says Ubisoft

Having gone without a single new entry since 2010’s The Forgotten Sands, many have wondered where the hell has the Prince been and just when the hell is he coming back?  If you consider yourself sort of a big fan, you might want to sit down for this one (don’t look shocked; I stand while I Tumble, as well).

“I think it is fair to say that, right now, Prince of Persia is being paused,” says Yannis Mallat, Ubisoft Montreal’s CEO speaking to IGN.  The Prince hasn’t been axed, no.  In fact, Mallat admits Ubisoft has paused several of its brand names that “suddenly popped up” again because one of their teams made it so.

It’s all a part of the process according to Yannis.  Franchises may come and go, but they’re never abandoned once they make it into the Ubisoft portfolio.  “We sometimes iterate on franchises,” explained Mallat, “And sometimes we give them time to breathe and time to grow, or time to rest.  Prince of Persia is as important as any other franchise for Ubisoft. As soon as we have something to show, we will.”

As far as historical piece/platformers go, I imagine Assassin’s Creed is filling the Prince’s void right and proper for Ubisoft at the moment.  For as different as the franchises may be from one another, though, even the Creed owes the Prince some credit given that the original AC started its life as an attempted Prince of Persia spin-off.  Hopefully Ubisoft can find a way to reiterate the Prince in the near future (humble opinion: take another gander at 2008’s woefully underrated entry for some ideas).