Prince of Persia Franchise Has Been Put on Pause
IGN talked with Ubisoft Montreal CEO, Yannis Mallat, and found out how they plan on keeping the Prince of Persia franchise fresh.
“Brand management is a tricky thing. It needs people’s attention a lot. I think it is fair to say that, right now, Prince of Persia is being paused. But we said the same thing for some other brands that suddenly popped up because a team is willing to do it.”
“I’m not scared at all for Prince of Persia fans. We’ll find something to entertain them with in the future. Prince of Persia is part of Ubisoft’s portfolio. As a matter of fact, we sometimes iterate on franchises and sometimes we give them time to breathe and time to grow, or time to rest. Prince of Persia is as important as any other franchise for Ubisoft. As soon as we have something to show, we will.”
What’s interesting is that last year a screenshot of a rumored Prince of Persia game was leaked. There was also a trailer that teased a game that reminded everyone of Prince of Persia. According to Ubisoft’s latest statements, those media must be from another game.
It seems to me that it would be wise for Ubisoft to give Prince of Persia a breather. The original Prince of Persia came out in 1989 and was published by Brøderbund. Between 1989 and 2003, when the franchise fell into Ubisoft’s hands, there were only two sequels to be released: Prince of Persia 2 and Prince of Persia 3D. However, Ubisoft has been releasing sequels prolifically, publishing 8 Prince of Persia games in 7 years. It’s high time to let the Prince take a bit of a nap if he wants to have energy for the future. In the meantime, the Assassin’s Creed series, which borrowed some of the acrobatic gameplay from Prince of Persia, will go on.
