Ubisoft has disbanded the development team behind the recently released platformer Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, according to a prominent French journalist. The reason for the team’s disbandment is simple. The game did not meet sales expectations, and Ubisoft “needed more resources to support other projects with better sales potential.” This is from a translation posted on Reset Era.
“Most of the team members who worked on Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown have moved on to other projects where they can utilize their expertise,” said Abdelhak Elges, the game’s senior producer. told Eurogamer.
According to a report from Insider Gaming, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown sold approximately 300,000 copies in its first few weeks of release, earning a total of $15 million in revenue. These sales are said to have “determined the fate” of the game and its development team. Ubisoft staff reportedly approached higher-ups to create a sequel or more DLC, but were denied.
Bizarrely, company executives reportedly refused to greenlight a sequel on the grounds that it would cannibalize sales of the original. I’m not sure how sequels work, especially if they’re released years after the first game, but whatever.
This is sad for many reasons. First of all, the game was great. The overall review score on Metacritic is 86, while user reviews hover around 8.5 out of 10. When I played it, I found it to be a great Metroidvania that rivals some of the classics of the genre, such as Hollow Knight and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
Gamers also consistently complain that Ubisoft doesn’t try anything new, instead relying on iterative improvements to core franchises or applying proven gameplay mechanics to existing IP. This is also unfortunate, as I have Prince of Persia: Lost Crown is certainly a retro-style throwback, but it’s not a lifeless open-world map filled with fetch quests and stealth missions.
By all accounts, it was also a positive development experience. Gaut, the French journalist who reported the story, said he heard from multiple employees that it was the best game-making experience of their lives. It was seen as a “beacon of hope” for those “burned out” by Beyond Good and Evil 2’s never-ending development cycle.
Why was the performance so bad? I don’t have hard data, but this was a 2D side-scrolling game that cost a whopping $60. That may be one of the reasons. Only Nintendo can get away with charging full price for retro-style titles.
It’s also worth noting that this is just one of two side-scrolling Prince of Persia games to be released this year, which may have caused some confusion in the market. Evil Empire, the developer team behind Dead Cells, also soft-launched The Rogue Prince of Persia as an early access title in May. It’s a roguelite take on a traditional franchise game.
