What you need to know
- Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a 2D Metroidvania platformer released earlier this year by Ubisoft. It's available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, PS5, PS4, and Nintendo Switch.
- The game reviewed very well with critics when it came out in January, and also has very favorable user review scores across all of its platforms.
- However, a new report claims that the development team at Ubisoft's Montpellier office responsible for making it has been disbanded, with a sequel turned down and developers assigned to other projects.
- Reportedly, Ubisoft's reasoning for the decision is financial, with the publisher choosing not to make a sequel due to The Lost Crown failing to meet sales expectations.
Original article: Ubisoft's Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown stood out as one of the best games the company has released in quite some time when it launched in January. Now, though, the development team responsible for it has reportedly been disbanded by the publisher.
That news comes from French game journalist Gauthier "Gautoz" Andres, who reported that he heard the information directly from several developers within Ubisoft's Montpellier office (the branch that made the title) in a video on Tuesday morning. Many saw it as a "beacon of hope to create" and an enjoyable project to work on when burnt out on developing Beyond Good and Evil 2 — that game hasn't been seen since its 2017 announcement, though Ubisoft said it's still on the way — but Ubisoft has now broken up its creators and has turned down a sequel, citing poor commercial performance.
"Internally, the fate of the game was already decided a few weeks after the release of the game. It was clear in spring that after releasing a few DLCs and cosmetics it would be the end," explained Andres. "A few members of the core dev team fought to get a sequel greenlit, which did not happen. Then they pushed for two expansions hoping that it would work this time, but it didn't since Ubisoft needed more hands to help on other projects that had a better sales potential which wasn't the case with Lost Crown not meeting sales expectations."
"Another crazy justification that the dev team received from higher-ups was that releasing a sequel for the game would cannibalize long term sales of the first game," he added.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was met with very favorable reviews when it came out earlier this year, and has an overall Metacritic score of 85-88 depending on which platform you're looking at reviews for. It also enjoys high ratings across Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch, with a "Very Positive" ranking on Valve's PC gaming platform and 83% of all user reviews on it positive.
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My Windows Central colleague Zachary Boddy gave the game a score of 4/5 stars in our Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review, calling it a "definitive win" for Ubisoft and "a decidedly fun, challenging, and interesting Metroidvania 2D platformer" as well as "a great game that you shouldn't immediately write off."
And yet, "write it off" is potentially what many did, with this report seemingly confirming rumors of disappointing sales that began to circulate a few weeks after The Lost Crown's arrival. Overall confidence in Ubisoft has waned in recent years due to several underwhelming releases, and that reputation likely bled into how the game was perceived by players and damaged its marketability. Its quality may have helped repair the firm's standing, but with its developers now disbanded and assigned to other projects, Ubisoft may never release a game like The Lost Crown again.
Analysis: Ubisoft has to be willing to take a hit
Assuming this report is true, the dispersion of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown's development team is terrible news. The game was one of this year's best releases for fans of platformers and Metroidvania titles, and also one of the best Xbox games and best PC games in general. Yes, it underperformed commercially, but I'd strongly argue that's because of Ubisoft's poor reputation and not because of anything to do with the actual title.
As a result of launching many underwhelming games in recent years, the publisher gets a bad rap from players, and many tend to steer clear from its new titles as a result. The only way to win those fans back is to show them that Ubisoft can consistently make enjoyable games again, but inevitably, that will mean accepting that some projects will fall short of desired profit as the company's reputation comes back above water.
By breaking up the team that delivered one of Ubisoft's only critical successes in years due to missed sales expectations, though, the publisher communicates to its fans that it's only willing to make commitments for its major cash cows like Assassin's Creed or Far Cry. I'm willing to bet excellent games like The Lost Crown would be commercial hits if they were coming consistently from a company known for its creative, high-quality releases, but that's just not what Ubisoft is right now — and until its executives are willing to grit their teeth and accept some struggles as it works to reach that status, I don't think it ever will.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is available for $39.99 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One systems, Windows PC (via Steam or Ubisoft Connect), PS5, PS4 systems, and Nintendo Switch. On PC, it's also available to play on Ubisoft's Xbox Game Pass-like gaming subscription service Ubisoft+.
