‘Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time’ now aiming for 2026 release

12 June, 2024

Prince Of Persia: Sand Of Time Remake Screenshot

Ubisoft has confirmed that the remake of Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time is now aiming for a 2026 release.

First announced back in 2020, Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time was advertised as a modern reworking of the 2003 original, featuring updated graphics, controls and combat. It was due to be released January 2021 but months after it was announced, Ubisoft delayed the release until March 2021 to allow developers time to “complete the game” following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time remake was then delayed several more times before development switched from Ubisoft’s Pune and Mumbai studios to Ubisoft Montréal, the studio which originally created the Sands Of Time trilogy.

In 2022, Ubisoft cancelled all pre-orders and delayed the game indefinitely, but promised the remake was still in active development. Updates since then have been scarce. A post on social media confirmed Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time remake had passed an “important milestone” while an in-house blog revealed that the game had completely restarted development and, as of 2023, was still in the conception stage.

During Ubisoft Forward yesterday (June 11) a brief teaser trailer for Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time was revealed, alongside a new release window of 2026.

“With the reigniting candle, we wanted to convey the rewind, the Sands of Time; the time powers are back, they’re important, they’re iconic. That’s the first thing. Secondly, we wanted to acknowledge that the passion for this game – both from us, and the players – is reigniting like that flame, and we want that candle to continue to burn for years to come,” explained creative director Bio Jade Adam Granger in a blog.

“Remaking a classic is very daring and exciting to me,” they added. “What I wanted to bring is the idea of ‘sanctify, respect, modernise, and add’. There are core elements of the original recipe that we respect and sanctify: time powers, the tone of the game, and the gravity-defying gameplay. But we modernise stuff like the level design, for example, and really enhance the scale of the world. We also vary challenge a bit more.”

Speaking about the continued delays, they added: “The landscape of remakes has evolved a lot since the first inception of the remake of Sands of Time.

“There have been some big players that clearly redefined the bar. We made some big changes to the 3Cs (Character, Camera, Controls), and had to build prototypes to make sure that our new controls still feel good with the old gameplay, and sometimes we need to change them.”

In other news, Riot Games and Netflix have confirmed that Arcane season two will be the series’ last. 

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