Tuesday, January 27th 2026
Leaked Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Test Presentation Impresses After Cancellation
Ubisoft earlier this month announced the cancellation of a swathe of in-progress games, one of them being the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, and although that game will likely never see the light of day as a complete product, pre-alpha workshop presentation snapshots from March 2024 have leaked online, giving fans of the series a glimpse at what might have been. The footage shows off the titular character in a number of environments, including in the middle of several parkour moves—a system that was meant to be getting a big update with the remake—and a handful of refreshed, expansive environments and character designs for both the prince and Farah. Objectively, some of the game assets look better than others, but this is to be expected from a 2024 version of the game, however, it's clear a lot of work has gone into modernizing the visuals, environments, and character designs.
Ubisoft said that the troubled Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was cancelled because it didn't meet the minimum standard of quality expected from executives after Ubisoft's recent overhaul, however, fans of the series seem to disagree. On X, where the test footage was posted, players are both commenting on how good the revised visuals look and lamenting the game's cancellation, with some appealing to Ubisoft to release the game, while others, doubting that Ubisoft will ever return to the franchise after the successive issues that plagued The Sands of Time Remake, are begging the studio to sell the IP to another studio. The Sands of Time was originally announced in 2020 and slated to release in 2021, but it was delayed and appeared to be dead until recently, when leaks claimed that the game was to launch in 2026. Following the cancellation of The Sands of Time Remake, it has also been confirmed that Ubisoft is looking to potentially lay off up to 200 employees at its Paris headquarters.
Source:
Prince of Persia Universe on X
Ubisoft said that the troubled Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was cancelled because it didn't meet the minimum standard of quality expected from executives after Ubisoft's recent overhaul, however, fans of the series seem to disagree. On X, where the test footage was posted, players are both commenting on how good the revised visuals look and lamenting the game's cancellation, with some appealing to Ubisoft to release the game, while others, doubting that Ubisoft will ever return to the franchise after the successive issues that plagued The Sands of Time Remake, are begging the studio to sell the IP to another studio. The Sands of Time was originally announced in 2020 and slated to release in 2021, but it was delayed and appeared to be dead until recently, when leaks claimed that the game was to launch in 2026. Following the cancellation of The Sands of Time Remake, it has also been confirmed that Ubisoft is looking to potentially lay off up to 200 employees at its Paris headquarters.
18 Comments on Leaked Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Test Presentation Impresses After Cancellation
Assets update is artists decision.
Story Copy&Pasting is management indecision.
Point was, why so many remakes rather than new games in the franchises? They still have to assign engineers for the engine, artists for the assets, and mainly saving on writing the story because it's a remake, so same story. Aren't the savings from "just remaking" a game partially offset by fewer people buying because "already played it"?
My suspicion is that they don't have too many competent writers left around to write a truly compelling story, so they go with reheating last week's leftovers which look like a safer bet today. Why they have no competent writers is anyone's guess but maybe it started with someone saying "AI can do it".
There are good story writers left (cf. Expedition 33), but excellence is a rarity, both now and in the past. It's hard to come up with something compelling.
Then we have games that need a redo in 64 bit from 16 or 32 bit. which I think is also cool because it allows younger folks to play old games they have never seen before.
If they were doing it for a cash grab, that is fine too, because, you know, money pays the bills. You don't have to let them grab YOUR cash.
Prince of Persia is a big franchise and I am sure they will do something else. You can't make ALL the people happy ALL the time.
Does not fit into Excel spreadsheet of managers.
So they chose the approach: .... It was selling good, so repeat it in new package.
There have been some good remakes of late, though: Silent Hill 2, Resident Evil 2 and 4.
And the character re-designs are about what I expected from a modern “remake” - pointless amount of unnecessary details just to show how more “advanced” it is. They obviously forgot that Farah runs around in what is essentially a harem girl outfit, not… whatever this is supposed to be.
At least Sands of Time is old enough so that more up to date version could be done for new gamer generation...
The character designs do seem off, not quite there yet. I think Bloober was spot on in their changes for SH2R, so it does depend on the development team.
At least Remakes/Remasters gamble only on fanbase nostalgia, but not all Remakes/Remasters have been well-received. A lot of the censored ones for example, were harshly critiqued and caused fans to have to make their own patches that revert things back to match the original game, just in HD, while more faithful ones generally trended positive (but has its own exceptions, like the Front Mission series from Square being poorly made due to being outsourced).
Frankly, not every games needs to be AAA level; I'd be happy to see sequels to old series with minor updates to graphics and gameplay, but still preserving enough of the old charm. Sure, they might only be A or AA level and lack "ultrarealisim" and raytracing, but that's not really something I care about in the first place.
It's also sad that people these days think in terms of story-first as if games weren't about gameplay first and foremost.