Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia Sands of Time Remake has been fully rebooted and is currently in the conception phase, the publisher has confirmed.
After numerous rumors, Ubisoft officially confirmed the existence of the Sands of Time Remake back in September 2020. Back then, the game was slated to be released in early 2021, but in February 2021, Ubisoft delayed the title indefinitely. A year later, Ubisoft announced that development on the game was handed back to the creator of the 2003 original – Ubisoft Montreal.
“This decision is an important step and the team, building upon the work achieved by Ubisoft Pune and Ubisoft Mumbai, will now take the time they need to regroup on the scope of the game to deliver you the best experience for this remake of an all-time classic when it’s ready”, Ubisoft wrote in May of 2022. “We want to thank you all for your continuous support and patience throughout the development. Rest assured, that we will update you on the progress in a future update.”
Fast forward one year, and after a long period of silence, the French publisher has now provided an update on the game’s development status via Twitter and the Ubisoft blog, revealing that the project is still in the conception phase with Ubisoft Montreal building up the development team, defining priorities, developing prototypes and testing gameplay elements. As such, fans of the game won’t be hearing about the game anytime soon.
“It’s still in an early stage, and players should not expect to hear more about the game this year, but rest assured that we’re all putting our strengths and heart into this project”, Producer Jean-Francois Naud said in a new interview published on the Ubisoft blog.
In the same interview, Game Director Michael McIntyre also talked about key elements that need to be preserved with the remake, mentioning that the Sands of Time needs to remain a story within a story. “Obviously, keeping the same story and setting is important, but one of the things we identified as being critical to make certain that this is not just a Prince of Persia game, but that it is The Sands of Time, is that there is a narrator that is telling you this story, and it is a story within a story”, the Game Director explained. “Even other Prince of Persia games did not do that, and it really is a secret ingredient to that feeling of The Sands of Time, that sort of storybook feel. That is super-important for us to preserve.”
We’ll probably be hearing more about the Sands of Time Remake somewhere next year. We’ll update you as soon as more information comes in.
