David Bridges
Ubisoft has disbanded the staff behind the recently-released platformer Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown, based on a good French journalist. The alleged motive for disbanding the staff is a straightforward one. The sport didn’t meet gross sales expectations and Ubisoft “wanted extra fingers to assist on different tasks that had a greater gross sales potential.” That is based on a translation revealed on Reset Period.
“A lot of the staff members who labored on Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown have shifted to different tasks that can profit from their experience,” Abdelhak Elguess, a senior producer on the sport, informed Eurogamer.
Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown bought round 300,000 copies throughout its first few weeks of availability, totaling $15 million in income, as indicated by a report by Insider Gaming. These gross sales figures allegedly “sealed the destiny” of the sport and its dev staff. Ubisoft staffers reportedly pushed increased ups for a sequel, or extra DLC, however have been allegedly denied.
Oddly, the corporate’s executives reportedly refused to greenlight a sequel on the grounds that it might cannibalize gross sales of the unique. I’m unsure that’s how sequels work, particularly after they come out years after the primary recreation, however no matter.
That is unhappy for a lot of causes. To begin with, the sport was nice. The Metacritic combination assessment rating sits at 86, whereas person critiques hover at round 8.5 out of ten. I performed it and located it to be a improbable Metroidvania that would simply sit subsequent to a few of the classics of the style, like Hole Knight and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night time.
It’s additionally a bummer as a result of avid gamers always complain that Ubisoft doesn’t strive something new, as an alternative counting on iterative enhancements of its core franchises or making use of tried-and-true gameplay mechanics to pre-existing IPs. Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown is a retro-style throwback, positive, but it surely’s not one other lifeless open world map full of fetch quests and stealth missions.
By all accounts, it additionally seems to have been a constructive improvement expertise. The French journalist who broke this story, Gautoz, mentioned he heard from a number of staff that it was one of the best recreation manufacturing expertise of their lives. It was seen as a “beacon of hope” for “those who have been burnt out by” the countless improvement cycle of Past Good and Evil 2.
Why did it underperform? There’s no laborious information, however this was a 2D sidescroller that value a whopping $60. That may very well be one motive. Solely Nintendo can get away with charging full value for retro-style titles.
It’s additionally value noting that this was simply certainly one of two sidescrolling Prince of Persia video games to launch this 12 months, which might have injected some confusion into the market. Evil Empire, the staff behind Useless Cells, additionally soft-launched The Rogue Prince of Persia again in Could as an early entry title. It is a roguelite spin on the standard franchise video games.
Daniel Mercer
