10 Upcoming Video Games That Are Already Doomed
3. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake
Even accepting that AAA development times seem to keep getting longer with each passing year, it's tough not to question why it's taken Ubisoft so long to develop a remake of an eight-hour game.
A remake of legendary 2003 action-adventure game Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was first announced at a Ubisoft Forward event in 2020 and intended to release on January 21st, 2021.
However, the reveal trailer was widely criticised by fans for its lackluster visuals, many feeling that this was effectively a rush-job remaster being cynically branded as a full-fat remake.
This caused Ubisoft to initially delay the game to March 2021 before postponing it indefinitely.
By 2022, Indian studios Ubisoft Mumbai and Ubisoft Pune were removed from the project and replaced by Ubisoft Montreal, who reportedly restarted development from scratch.
The last substantial update came in June 2024, when a teaser trailer revealed a 2026 release date, though perplexingly showed not even a glimpse of what the new version of the remake looked like.
This is just a stupendous amount of time and, presumably, money to spend on a Sands of Time remake, and even if it's well-received upon launch, given the dubious popularity of the Prince of Persia franchise at present - especially with the brilliant The Lost Crown flopping last year - it seems unlikely to be a commercial success.