Halfway through the year and 2023 has already been filled with announcements detailing the latest changes coming to long-running franchises ranging from Call of Duty to Final Fantasy. But while many developers focus on ensuring that new titles in their most popular series feature revolutionary new features, Ubisoft appears to be taking a drastically different approach. Rather than touting dozens of new gameplay mechanics for the latest entries in its Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed franchises, Ubisoft is instead moving forward with a potentially risky, but so far well-received, back-to-basics approach to each series.
In addition to their similar settings, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and Assassin’s Creed Mirage share a renewed focus on the gameplay mechanics that helped each franchise become a hit initially. This is a great way to pay homage to each series’ roots and should help make the games more approachable for new players. But while throwback titles are nothing new for the industry, what makes Ubisoft’s choice so interesting is that it doesn’t look to be simply an appeal to gamers’ sense of nostalgia, but also an honest reckoning with what some players perceive as serious missteps with the most recent Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia games.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Offers a Stylish Spin on a Tried-and-True Formula
While some gamers were likely disappointed that the oft-delayed Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake didn’t make an appearance at the Summer Game Fest, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown looks like it has the potential to scratch a similarly nostalgic itch. Serving as a stylish return to the series’ side-scrolling roots, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown appears to be embracing the creative, acrobatic platforming mechanics that made the 1989 original a hit with players.
After the lukewarm reception to 2008's stylish but ultimately shallow Prince of Persia and 2010’s movie tie-in, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, returning to the franchise’s roots may be the best way for Ubisoft to remind gamers what made them love the series in the first place. A retro-influenced Prince of Persia 2D platformer should make for a welcome palate cleanser after a string of increasingly disappointing sequels and spin-offs throughout the 2000s left a sour taste in many players’ mouths. A successful release for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown could drum up interest in the troubled Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands’ remake and even potentially open the door to a new mainline entry in the franchise.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage Could Recapture the Magic That Made the Franchise a Hit
Just as Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown marks a return to that franchise’s roots, the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Mirage is set to do the same for Ubisoft’s stealth-centric series. Although the Assassin’s Creed games have largely managed to avoid the dip in quality that has plagued the Prince of Persia series, they’ve still managed to turn away some players. With their increasingly lengthy runtimes and a growing reliance on RPG elements, players more interested in parkour and assassination than spending 80+ hours just to reach the end credits have often felt forgotten with recent Assassin’s Creed games.
The first gameplay trailer made it clear that Ubisoft’s promises about Assassin’s Creed Mirage weren’t just a bait and switch, showing that the company is willing to adapt and learn from its missteps. And even though it's exceedingly unlikely that the franchise’s mainline entries will follow Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s pared-down approach going forward, its success would show that there’s still a market for a more traditional Assassin’s Creed game and make similar titles more likely to be released in the future.
If proven to be successful, this retro revival strategy for classic Ubisoft franchises doesn’t have to stop with Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia. With the publisher’s other highest-profile legacy franchise facing increased criticisms of its own in recent years, maybe a throwback Far Cry blissfully free of towers to climb could even be next on the list.