5 Possible Reasons Behind the Prince of Persia Remake Cancellation

For nearly six years, the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake was the project with no finish line. First revealed via trailer in 2020, it had to be reassigned from Ubisoft Pune to Ubisoft Montreal. After multiple delays, a change in development studios, and a complete reboot of the project, Ubisoft finally decided to scrap it.

While fans of the original 2003 classic are understandably disappointed, this definitely demands an explanation regarding the cancellation of the project.

Why Was Prince of Persia Remake Cancelled?

Here are the five reasons we believe resulted in the Prince of Persia Remake cancelled:

1. A Rough First Impression That the Project Never Recovered From

Every building is only as strong as its foundation, and the Sands of Time Remake started on shaky ground. When Ubisoft first revealed the project in 2020, it was being handled by Ubisoft Pune and Ubisoft Mumbai. While these are talented studios, no doubt, this was their first time leading a massive AAA global project.

• The reveal trailer, which was launched in September 2020, became an overnight meme. Fans found the character model plastic and nowhere close to how a modern AAA title should look.
• Many fans made remarks that they are revisiting the 2012 era graphics once again. By the time Ubisoft realised the project needed a total overhaul, years of work had already been poured into it.
• When the project was eventually moved to Ubisoft Montreal in 2022, instead of just fixing a few bugs, they would have had to rewrite most of the code and recreate almost every visual asset from scratch.

2. Higher Standards for Game Remakes

The gaming market changed significantly between 2020 and 2026. During the COVID times, there was a huge influx of games, and they mostly saw great success in the market. Of course, thanks to the lockdown period and the online activity boom.

• New challenges set in for Ubisoft in 2026 as they were into the Sand remake, other companies were already working on high-quality titles.
• Not to say, this was also supposed to be the year of GTA 6, which just got pushed into 2027.
• Still, having so many high-quality titles already waiting to launch must have created questions in front of the Ubisoft team about whether they should move with a mid-budget or nostalgic title, which was no longer enough to satisfy modern gamers.

3. A Shift in Ubisoft’s Business Strategy

In case you don't know, Ubisoft is going through a massive internal restructuring in 2026. Ubisoft shifted its attention towards Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy-like titles. For Ubisoft, the Prince of Persia remake did not fit into their plan.

How so? The first thing is that the Prince of Persia remake is a single-player linear game with a short story; even if it had done decent initial sales, it would have been hard for Ubisoft to generate a further revenue stream. Most companies do this nowadays through live service features or microtransactions, in short.

4. Six Years of Development With No Clear Finish Line

• We have seen that most of the remakes usually take around two or three years at max. Now, in the case of the Prince of Persia remake, it is 2026, so the project has been in development for six years now.
• This prolonged duration or stretch comes at a cost. So far, Ubisoft has already spent a massive amount, first when the project was in the hands of Ubisoft Pune, then later when it got shifted to Ubisoft Montreal.
• Even if you do just basic math, you should know that the game would have had to sell millions of copies just to break even and pay back the years of salaries and marketing costs.

5. Success of Newer Prince of Persia Titles

While Prince of Persia Remake was in limbo, it was not like Ubisoft was not doing well with this franchise. In fact, Ubisoft was struggling more with the 3D remake, while 2D titles in this series were showing a response, like The Lost Crown and The Rogue Prince of Persia titles.

Not only were these titles easier and cheaper to manage, but both games were successes in terms of fiscal outputs and also proved that the franchise did not need a high-budget 3D remake to make a point.

Will We Ever Get A Prince of Persia Sands of Time Remake?

There's no solid answer to this as the project remains shut down for now. A lot of it currently hinges on how Ubisoft titles perform in the upcoming years. If there is a rising trend in their overall sales, the French gaming giants may actually consider reopening the project once again.

This was our entire coverage of the possible reasons exploring why the Prince of Persia Remake cancelled. If you liked this piece, consider visiting our website for more such content. We recently covered how an AC Black Blag Remake delay is also on the cards after Ubisoft's internal reshuffle.