Watching this is like turning back time
This is definitely The Weird Story of the Day — but don’t underestimate 2020’s ability to swoop in and get way weirder at the drop of a dime.
People have been begging Ubisoft for a newPrince of Persiafor almost a decade. As it turns out, footage of a new (but canceled)Prince of Persiahas been sitting on YouTube since 2012. It just went completely unnoticed this entire time.
SubtitledRedemption(how wonderfully early 2010s), a newPrince of Persiagame PoPped onto the radar this week as people found the developer’s internal pitch video to Ubisoft. It looks something like a mix ofUncharted(big, splashy action setpieces),God of War(a tentacled monster smashing everything), and the signaturePrince of Persiaflashy combat and parkour running.
Former Ubisoft animatorJonathan Cooper took to Twitterto confirm that this video had been passed around the company back in the day, even admitting that this pre-rendered target gameplay pitch informed the style of theAssassin’s Creed IIIteam’s pitch. Cooper also dropped a discouraging tidbit as to the likely reason why we haven’t seen anotherPrince of Persiain so long. “Sadly Ubisoft are generally quicker to cancelPrince of Persiagames than others [properties] because [as far as I know] original creator Jordan Mechner still holds license rights so the profit margins are lower,”Cooper said.
That could be whyRedemptionnever got greenlit. Or, Ubisoft could’ve wanted to let the series breathe for a little bit after 2010’sPrince of Persia: The Forgotten Sandsand the accompanying Jake Gyllenhaal movie. Whatever the logic, here’s a prince who never got to take the throne.
