A new rumor suggests that Ubisoft is giving the team behind its award winning 2024 Metroidvania hit another shot after being disbanded 18 months ago.
Prince of persia: the lost crown team might be making a comeback
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was one of the first major games released in 2024, immediately becoming an early frontrunner for Game of the Year in the minds of gamers at the time. The first Prince of Persia game of consequence to come out since the 2013 remake of Prince of Persia 2, The Lost Crown is a side-scrolling Metroidvania that received heaps of praise for its fast-paced combat, gripping platforming, and expertly crafted map design and exploration. While it took home the Innovation in Accessibility award at The Game Awards that year, many gamers felt that it was deserving of many more accolades.
Only ten months after Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown‘s January 2024 release, and one month after the release of its Mask of Darkness DLC, Ubisoft confirmed in October 2024 that it had disbanded the Lost Crown team within Ubisoft Montpellier and moved the developers to other teams across Ubisoft. The move was a complete head-scratcher, as the game was able to sell an impressive 1.3 million copies in its first year, though reports later confirmed that Ubisoft had loftier sales expectations for the 2D action platfomer. Gamers continued to flock to The Lost Crown in the year following, attracting three million total players as of this past September.
New rumor says Ubisoft is “reuniting” the Lost Crown team
A new rumor has emerged that suggests Ubisoft might be reassembling the previously disbanded team behind Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. According to French journalist Gauthier Andres on Bluesky, the core team has “reunited” and is currently pitching ideas for a new game to Ubisoft. In a related post, Andreas added that the number of developers that have returned is small at the moment, but there’s room to grow.
The past few years have seen Ubisoft put a larger emphasis on its bigger franchises that typically turn out to be safer bets. The French video game publisher released two major Assassin’s Creed games within the span of two years, October 2023’s Mirage and last year’s Shadows, and it has many more Assassin’s Creed games in the pipeline, like its Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag remake and Assassin’s Creed Hexe, among others. The dissolution of the Lost Crown team seemed to indicate that Ubisoft wanted to move away from smaller, riskier projects, and maybe that’s still the case. However, this new rumor makes it seem like perhaps Ubisoft is still open to such ideas.
what this could mean for prince of persia
Prince of Persia was once one of Ubisoft’s most prevalent and successful franchises in the 2000s, and it became apparent that Ubisoft had been wanting to give the series somewhat of a revival led by a ground-up remake of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. This excited longtime Prince of Persia fans when it was announced in 2020, and games like The Lost Crown and Evil Empire’s The Rogue Prince of Persia served as flavorful side dishes during the long wait for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake. However, after several disappointing showings, studio switch-ups, and years of delays, the remake was canceled earlier this year, leaving Prince of Persia fans nothing at all to look forward to.
If Andres’ rumor turns out to be true, it could mean that the Lost Crown team would be the studio that carries the Prince of Persia torch into the future for the time being, starting with a potential follow-up to its 2024 Metroidvania hit. That is, if the team wants to continue with the series. There’s a chance an entirely different direction is in the cards, putting a Lost Crown sequel on the shelf for a while. Regardless, if this reunion really does take hold and leads to a new game from the developers behind The Lost Crown, we’re still several years away from learning exactly what it’s going to be or seeing anything concrete.
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