Ubisoft Cancels The Lost Crown's Sequel for Rayman Remake and Project Over

Ubisoft is wasting time and effort on pointless initiatives instead of focusing on fixing the real problem, and this is proven again with the latest update regarding their Prince of Persia game. Their lack of learning is really disappointing to witness at this point. Since you might already be aware, Ubisoft dismissed the Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown development team.

No, they weren't fired but moved to another project. Ubisoft turned down the team's request for a sequel to The Lost Crown due to the game's poor sales performance; the studio was concerned that the sequel would be even less successful. Seriously!

The only Ubisoft game this year that truly resonated with me was The Lost Crown. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown had everything I love in a side-scrolling Metroidvania. Despite being one of the top platformers of recent years, Ubisoft chose to disband the team. The game's development, which took place between 2020 and 2023, was a success, but Ubisoft's delay in releasing the game was a disappointment. They had anticipated Metroid Dread's sales numbers, but the game sold 3 million copies over nearly two years, making it the highest-selling Metroidvania game ever.

It's baffling that Ubisoft thought a 2D Prince of Persia would perform well on a console, especially when every Nintendo exclusive sells like hotcakes. Releasing Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown in January with little promotion was unrealistic in my opinion. They should have kept the price at $30 maximum, like previous Metroidvania games, instead of $50.

They released it on Steam in August, where titles like this could generate the majority of their revenue and on Steam on launch. To further dilute the already meager market, they introduced Rogue Prince of Persia, another side-scrolling game in the same franchise, all of a sudden. On the other hand, one could say that although fans wanted Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown to return, they were really hoping for a new 3D game in the series rather than a 2D one. Though I thought the game was perfect.

The entire Ubisoft management is exhibiting terrible handling of company resources. Their finest game this year, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, was a complete bust, and they're unwilling to invest in its sequel despite the massive financial losses from Skull and Bones, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and Star Wars Outlaws.  To be fair, they are reallocating the employees rather than firing them all. Most of the crew has now jumped on board to work on Beyond Good and Evil 2. They did, in fact, hire a new creative director, so the game is definitely still in development. Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go until this game releases, and Ubisoft will never recoup their investment if it takes that long.

In addition, a number of individuals have shifted their focus to Project Over, the upcoming core Ghost Recon game that is expected to launch before April 2026. Consider, however, the transition from creating Metroidvanias to creating first-person tactical shooters with Ghost Recon or even just working on PvP maps. Some people find that to be an incredibly unpleasant experience.

However, that's not all; about several have been taken up in Ubisoft Milan's Project Steamboat, a Rayman Remake now under development. A few days ago, this was just a rumor, but now Ubisoft has confirmed it. So, the Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle and Rayman Remake are both in development at Ubisoft Milan right now. It has been leaked that they are reportedly working on a 3D Rayman, having already made the Rayman DLC for it last year.

While I enjoy Rayman games and occasionally fire up Rayman Legends, I'll never see Ubisoft's reasoning behind scrapping games like The Lost Crown in favor of the Rayman Remake. We've been through some rough patches as Ubisoft fans, but the company's future releases will determine how long they stay in the game industry. Tencent will eventually acquire a majority stake, and if Ubisoft's future titles are disappointing, a new chapter may be written for the company.