Ubisoft Montpellier, the developer behind Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, has disbanded the team behind the 2024 action-adventure game because it failed to meet the sales expectations of its parent company, Ubisoft, according to a new report that has surfaced online. French game journalist “Gautoz,” who shared the claim today as part of a new YouTube video, explained that while the team had fought to get a sequel and/or expansions greenlit, Ubisoft pulled the plug entirely, opting to move the developers onto other projects. “I did not anticipate having such a blast with this game,” reads one review for the Metroidvania title, which launched in January 2024 before releasing on Steam in August.
J'ai entendu ou lu "la meilleure prod' de ma vie" trois ou quatre fois en un week-end à propos du développement de PoP The Lost Crown. Tour à tour espoir d'une autre manière de créer et zone de réhabilitation pour gens crâmés par BGE2, l'équipe a été dissoute par Ubisoft. https://t.co/FFz9cfm4xj
— Gautoz (@gautoz) October 22, 2024
Internally, the fate of the game was already decided a few weeks after the release of the game, it was clear in Spring that after releasing a few DLCs and Cosmetics it would be the end. A few members of the core dev team fought to get a sequel greenlit which did not happen, then they pushed for two expansions hoping that it would work this time but it didn’t since Ubisoft needed more hands to help on other projects that had a better sales potential which wasn’t the case with Lost Crown not meeting sales expectations. Another crazy justification that the dev team received from higher-ups was that releasing a sequel for the game would cannibalize long term sales of the first game.
Discussion (5 replies)
Join Discussion →That is unfortunate. I heard good things about the game from people I know who played it. I planned to check it out at some point. Guess that team won't be making any more.
Good job Ubi, disband the only team you have that made a good game in the last 2 years.
Yep, the Ubi/EA way. Throw out garbage and act surprised when nobody wants it and when they do have something players respond positively to lay the blame for underperforming. The sad part is that I didn't even remember this getting released. I remember the multiple delay announcements, and that is known to add to costs, but not a whole lot about the actual release. The odds are that a little more advertising could've gone a long way.
I do wonder though if there might be more going on here given the rumors of a possible buyout in the works.
It doesn't help that A.) Ubisoft games require Connect, B.) this game launched on EGS and NOT Steam. So they really shouldn't be surprised the sales weren't that good. They did that to themselves. If they had released on Steam and GOG things would have turned out a lot better, I think.
Yeah that too. I only remember the game getting released cuz I have friends who played it. Overall I think most people who knew about the game forgot it existed. And the rest didn't know about it to begin with. This one kinda flew under the radar.
Worst dumpster fire I've dealt with in a long time. I had the urge to try and get back into AC IV this weekend and I cannot count how many hours I spent trying to re-link it to my current email account from one that I made over 10 years ago. I still have complete access to the old account but that didn't help when Connect wouldn't work in sending timely codes for authorizing the transfer. Finally gave and uninstalled the game and it. Seriously thinking of looking for a community copy or at least any cracks although not a huge loss since I hate Animas as well.
Did not know that and yep, another stupid decision. I truly feel sorry for any dev staff connected to UBI since it looks like a sinking/burning ship.