The remake of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time has hit an "important internal milestone," Ubisoft has revealed. Its encouraging announcement stands in stark contrast to the disappointing update on the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake that the company shared back in May, suggesting that the project was still in pre-production.

First revealed in 2020, the remake of the iconic Prince of Persia reboot was initially met with backlash from the fandom due to its underwhelming visuals. The criticism gained so much traction that the project was hit with an indefinite delay while Ubisoft reassessed its merits. The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake ended up swapping developers two years later, having been reassigned from Ubisoft's India-based studios in Pune and Mumbai to Ubisoft Montreal.

Related

New Prince of Persia Game Announced

The 2023 Summer Game Fest event kicks off with the surprise reveal of a new Prince of Persia game in development at Ubisoft.

While not much has been revealed about the remake ever since, Ubisoft just confirmed that the game has reached a major internal milestone. Taking to X, formerly Twitter, the official Prince of Persia account said that the development on the remake hence continues to progress. The update itself was shared on the 20th anniversary of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time's European release.

As for what this internal milestone might be referring to, it is possible that The Sands of Time remake has finally started active production. Seeing how its producer, Jean-Francois Naud, revealed that the project was still "in conception" back in May, no other "important" milestones appear to be feasible for the studio to reach just six months later. The wording of the 2022 developer switch announcement initially suggested that Ubisoft Montreal wouldn't return to the drawing board, but attempt to build on what its companies in Pune and Mumbai had already achieved by that point. However, Naud's subsequent update clearly indicated that the development eventually had to be restarted from scratch.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake Is Still Likely Years Away From Release

Assuming the game is now in active production, the next major milestone would be to have it playable from start to finish. From there, the developers would simultaneously turn to refining the experience and working on replacing placeholder assets with finished products. For reference, asset creation has historically been the biggest bottleneck in game development. And given the initial fan complaints about The Sands of Time remake's graphics, it's unlikely that Ubisoft Montreal decided to reuse much of the project's original assets.

Beyond that, testing and bug fixing also tend to be massive time sinks in AAA game development. The remake is hence still likely years away from hitting the market. And while Ubisoft remains adamant to see this project through, the difficulties that it already faced in doing so ostensibly contributed to its decision not to remake any more Prince of Persia games in the foreseeable future.

Prince of Persia

The Prince of Persia franchise is a long-running series that began in 1989 with the first-ever cinematic platformer. The series has dabbled in many genres, though the games are predominantly a blend of action-adventure and platforming.

The original Prince of Persia isn't the series' only iconic game, as 2003's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is still considered one of the best action-adventure games of all time.