How many studios does it take to remake a 20-year-old videogame? Maybe someday we'll find out.
A year after announcing that work on the long-struggling Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake was starting over from square one, Ubisoft has roped another studio into it: Ubisoft Toronto is now on the job.
The Sands of Time Remake was announced in 2020 with a planned release in 2021, which in hindsight proved to be wildly optimistic. Instead, Ubisoft moved the game from its Pune and Mumbai studios to Ubisoft Montreal, which didn’t look great but at least had some nostalgic appeal: Ubisoft Montreal is the developer of the original Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
Instead of visible progress, though, there was another delay, and near the end of 2022 Ubisoft fired out refunds for all extant preorders, although it insisted the game was still happening. A year after that, Ubisoft said things were coming along nicely after the development reboot, but not so nicely that it was willing to commit to a new release target.
Which brings us to now, and the new involvement of Ubisoft Toronto—although Ubisoft Montreal is still working on it too.
“Ubisoft Toronto is joining the development of the remake of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time!” the studio tweeted. “We’re excited to rewind time and bring our studio’s creativity, expertise and updated tech to refresh this beloved classic with our partners at UbisoftMTL.”
(Image credit: Ubisoft)
Ubisoft Montreal extended the obligatory warm welcome to the project: “So thrilled to embark on this epic journey with you! We cannot wait to weave the magic of this classic tale together!”
The natural question is, how many Ubisoft studios does it take to remake a 20-year-old videogame? The answer, I guess, is “four, so far,” which frankly I find a little, well, weird. I don’t mean to come across as dismissive about the challenges of making a videogame, but the original Sands of Time is right there. Just do that, but new, right?
The other, maybe less-obvious question is, what about that Splinter Cell remake Ubisoft Toronto is supposed to be working on? That was announced in 2021 and we’ve basically heard zip about it since, although the studio maybe hinted at a possible reveal in June, presumably at the Ubisoft Forward showcase on June 10. In response to inquiries about that game, Ubisoft Toronto simply said, “Still working on it.”
(Image credit: Ubisoft)
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