Journalist for the French publication Origami Gauthier Andres, better known under the pseudonym Gautoz, spoke about the state of affairs of the developers of the metroidvania Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown from Ubisoft Montpellier.
Image source: Steam
Let’s remember that Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was released on January 18 and earned high marks from critics, however, according to rumors, it started weakly – at launch the project attracted about 300 thousand players and brought Ubisoft about $15 million.
According to Gautoz, within Ubisoft itself, the future fate of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was decided back in the spring – the game’s story will end with several post-release updates and one paid story addition.
Key Ubisoft Montpellier employees tried to convince management to approve the sequel, but to no avail. The management, among other things, considered that the second part would “destroy” the sales of the first in the long term.
Image source: Steam (kosttank92)
Subsequently, the developers hoped to get permission from Ubisoft to release at least a second add-on for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, but the team members were transferred to more financially promising projects.
As a result, the team within Ubisoft Montpellier that created Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was disbanded. Gautoz reports that for many employees, working on the game became an outlet after burnout on Beyond Good and Evil 2.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is released on PC (Steam, Ubisoft Connect, EGS), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, S and Nintendo Switch. In the story, players take on the role of sword master Sargon to rescue the kidnapped Persian prince Hassan.