Ubisoft has announced that it has cancelled six games currently in development – including its remake of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time – and delayed seven others.
As part of a larger announcement that it is conducting a “major organisational, operational and portfolio reset”, the company also stated that it had “conducted a thorough review of its content pipeline” over the past two months.
This review led to the decision to “refocus its portfolio, reallocate resources and comprehensively revise its roadmap over the next three years,” it said.
Ubisoft [1,346 articles]” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/ubisoft/”>Ubisoft said its focus will be on a “return to exceptional levels of quality on the Open-World Adventure segment” and to “step-change the group’s position in the [Games as a Service]-native experiences segment”.
As a result of this, Ubisoft says it has “discontinued” six games that it felt “do not meet the new enhanced quality as well as more selective portfolio prioritization criteria”.
This means the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake has been cancelled, as well as four unannounced titles, including three new IPs and a mobile title. The identity of the sixth game has not been clarified.
Ubisoft also announced it was delaying seven other games, to “ensure enhanced quality benchmarks are fully met”. This includes “the unannounced title initially planned for FY26 [ending March 2026], that has been delayed to FY27”.
It has been believed for some time that the unannounced title in question is the long-reported but not yet confirmed remake of Assassin’s Creed (Series) [587 articles]” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/games/assassins-creed-series/”>Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, especially given that a listing for ‘Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced’ appeared on PEGI’s website last month.
In a statement posted on the official Prince of Persia account on X, the game’s development team explained the decision to cancel it.
“To the Prince of Persia community, We want to share this with you directly,” the message reads. “We’ve made the difficult decision to stop development on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake. We know this is deeply disappointing. The game carries enormous meaning for fans and for the teams who worked on it.
“While the project had real potential, we weren’t able to reach the level of quality you deserve, and continuing would have required more time and investment than we could responsibly commit. And, we didn’t want to release something that fell short of what The Sands of Time represents.
“Prince of Persia as a universe and a legacy continues to matter deeply to us, and this decision does not mean we’re stepping away from the franchise. Thank you for your passion, patience, and love for Prince of Persia.”
In a media call, Ubisoft chief financial officer Frederick Duguet [35 articles]” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/people/frederick-duguet/”>Frederick Duguet explained the decision to cancel six games and delay a further seven.
“As part of the finalization of the reorganization, we went through a review of projects across December and January, with the current market evolution in mind, which is persistently more selective,” Duguet said. “You’ve seen the last quarter showing a never-seen-before level of competition. So competition and selection is here to stay.
“But when you are coming in number one, number two, with great content quality on a given segment, then you can have a very strong reward in terms of player reception and financial performance. So that’s what really formed our pipeline review.
“We enhanced the quality criteria to select what we think should be the best projects to put the Creative Houses in the best conditions to succeed that in that market, with the idea that we must refocus our resources on the strongest potential games for the long term.
“So that’s really the criteria, the approach that we followed, to either stop some games – and in there, there are three new IPs that we stopped, in the context where yes, it’s more difficult in this market to create new IPs than before – or to give additional time for projects that we think have great potential, but we need to make sure they will come with exceptional quality.
Ubisoft also delayed an unannounced game planned for the end of March, which some believe is a remake of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag.
“So that’s really the approach and the mindset that we’ve been following. Coming back to new IPs, we still have four new IPs in development, including March of Giants which we just acquired, so we still believe that there are four innovative new IPs that we can bring to market with a great level of success.”
When it was announced in September 2020, the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake had been in development for two and a half years at Indian studios Ubisoft Pune and Ubisoft Mumbai, and was planned for release in January 2021.
Following a negative reaction to the game’s reveal trailer, however, it was delayed several times, and in 2023 it was announced that Ubisoft Montreal [264 articles]” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/ubisoft/ubisoft-montreal/”>Ubisoft Montreal, which made 2003’s original Sands of Time, had taken over development duties.
The remake was then given a 2026 release window, with Ubisoft stating in 2024 that its Toronto studio ( Far Cry (series) [213 articles]” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/games/far-cry-series/”>Far Cry 5, Watch Dogs Legion [98 articles]” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/games/watch-dogs-series/watch-dogs-legion/”>Watch Dogs Legion) had come on board to collaborate with Ubisoft Montreal on the project.
Last year, it clarified that it was set to release by the end of the current financial year, meaning before today’s announcement, players were expecting its release sometime before March 2026.
