While there have been reports that the now-cancelled Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake was “close to the finish line” in terms of development, a new unboxing video has surfaced that lends further credence to these rumors.
As caught by IGN, a two-minute unlisted video uploaded to YouTube showcases the unboxing of an unreleased press kit for the remake. Among the contents of the kit, packaged in a nice-looking wooden box with metal latches, is a replica of the Dagger of Time from Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The dagger sports a new design that was likely going to be used in the remake.
The package also includes a display stand for the Dagger of Time replica, sporting the official logo of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake. The video recorder picking the dagger up with their own hand also confirms that the replica is a full-sized one.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake was cancelled alongside four unannounced games as part of an organizational overhaul at Ubisoft. The company referred to the move as a “major organizational, operational, and portfolio reset to reclaim creative leadership and restore sustainable growth.”
A Reddit user claiming to be one of the game’s developers held a Q&A session under the name SocramVelmar. Responding to questions about the reasons behind its cancellation, the developer said that the only answer they got was “restructuring”, which in turn led to “a lot of internal fear” among the team.
“They said because of restructuring, but I’m honestly upset because I think it was close to the finish line,” they wrote. “I was working remotely and we were told that we had to go back to the office soon, but I didn’t make it out of the chopping block… there was a lot of internal fear which in a way did stagnate progress. This was known internally for a while now, rumors that became true.”
Whether or not SocramVelmar really was one of the developers on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, however, is unknown, since they couldn’t verify their identity at the risk of breaching non-disclosure agreements. This led to the Q&A as a whole being marked “Unverified”.
Writing further about the cancellation, the alleged developer noted that there were problems at the studio when it came to locking down gameplay feel thanks to issues with “internal alignment”.
“The bigger issue was internal alignment, and design probably had it the worst. They’d be trying to lock down how something should feel or play, while other teams were already moving in slightly different directions. That kind of push and pull leads to rework instead of progress, and over time that friction adds up way more than any leak ever could,” they wrote.
The official stance by Ubisoft on the cancellation of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake has been that the company wasn’t able to “reach the level of quality you deserve”. This meant that continuing development would have required a lot more time and resources. “And we didn’t want to release something that fell short of what The Sands of Time represents,” said Ubisoft in its statement.
